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•  i 


THE 


WORKS 


OF 


DANIEL    WEBSTER 


VOLUME    I. 


TWELFTH   EDITION 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,    BROWN    AND    COMPANY, 

1860. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1851,  by 

GEORGE  W-  GORDON  AND  JAMES  W.  PAIGE, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetti 


Y/25 

itsi 

v.  i 

UNDERGRAD. 
LIBRARY 


DEDICATION 

OF    THE    FIKST    VOLUME. 


TO     MY    NIECES, 

MRS.    ALICE    BRIDGE    WHIFFLE, 

AND 

MRS.    MARY    ANN    SANBORN: 

MANY  of  the  Speeches  contained  in  this  volume  were  delivered  and 
printed  in  the  lifetime  of  your  father,  whose  fraternal  affection  led  him 
to  speak  of  them  with  approbation. 

His  death,  which  happened  when  he  had  only  just  past  the  middle 
period  of  life,  left  you  without  a  father,  and  me  without  a  brother. 

1  dedicate  this  volume  to  you,  not  only  for  the  love  I  have  for  your 
selves,  but  also  as  a  tribute  of  affection  to  his  memory,  and  from  a 
desire  that  the  name  of  my  brother, 

EZEKIEL    WEBSTER, 

may  be  associated  with  mine,  so  long  as  any  thing  written  or  spoken  by 
me  shall  be  regarded  or  read. 

DANIEL  WEBSTEB. 


CONTENTS 


OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR. 

PAW 

CHAPTER  I xiii 

Former  Editions  of  the  Works  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  Plan  of  this  Edition. —  , 
Parentage  and  Birth.  —  First  Settlements  in  the  Interior  of  New  Hamp 
shire. —  Establishment  of  his  Father  at  Salisbury.  —  Scanty  Opportunities 
of  Early  Education.  —  First  Teachers,  and  recent  Letter  to  Master  Tap- 
pan.  —  Placed  at  Exeter  Academy.  —  Anecdotes  while  there.  —  Dart 
mouth  College. • —  Study  of  the  Law  at  Salisbury.  —  Residence  at  Frye- 
burg  in  Maine,  and  Occupations  there.  —  Continuance  of  the  Study  of 
the  Law  at  Boston,  in  the  Office  of  Hon.  Christopher  Gore.  —  Admission 
to  the  Bar  of  Suffolk,  Massachusetts.  —  Commencement  of  Practice  at 
Boscawcn,  New  Hampshire.  — Removal  to  Portsmouth.  —  Contemporaries 
in  the  Profession.  —  Increasing  Practice. 

CHAPTER  II. xxxiii 

Entrance  on  Public  Life.  —  State  of  Parties  in  1812.  —  Election  to  Congress. 
—  Extra  Session  of  1813.  —  Foreign  Relations  of  the  Country.  —  Resolu 
tions  relative  to  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees.  —  Naval  Defence. — Re- 
elected  to  Congress  in  1814.  —  Peace  with  England.  —  Projects  for  a 
National  Bank.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Course  on  that  Question.  —  Battle  of 
New  Orleans.  —  New  Questions  arising  on  the  Return  of  Peace.  —  Course 
of  Prominent  Men  of  Different  Parties.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Opinions  on  the 
Constitutionality  of  the  Tariff'  Policy.  —  The  Resolution  to  restore  Specie 
Payments  moved  by  Mr.  Webster.  —  Removal  to  Boston. 

CHAPTER  III.         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  .         xlvii: 

Professional  Character  particularly  in  Reference  to  Constitutional  Law. — 
The  Dartmouth  College  Case  argued  at  Washington  in  1818.  —  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's  Description  of  that  Argument.  —  The  Case  of  Gibbons  and  Ogden  • 
in  1824. —  Mr.  Justice  Wayne's  Allusion  to  that  Case  in  1847. —  The 
Case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders  in  1827.  —  The  Case  of  the  Proprietors  of 
the  Charles  River  Bridge.  —  The  Alabama  Bank  Case.—  The  Case  rela 
tive  to  the  Boundary  between  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  —  The 


vi  CONTENTS. 

Girard  Will  Case.  —  The  Case  of  the  Constitution  of  Rhode  Island.  — 
General  Remarks  on  Mr.  Webster's  Practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  —  Practice  in  the  State  Courts.  —  The  Case  of  Goodridge, 

—  and  the  Case  of  Knapp. 

CHAPTER   IV.  Ix 

The  Convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts. — John  Adams 
a  Delegate.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Share  in  its  Proceedings.  —  Speeches  on 
Oaths  of  Office,  Basis  of  Senatorial  Representation,  and  Independence 
of  the  Judiciary.  —  Centennial  Anniversary  at  Plymouth  on  the  22d  of 
December,  1820.  —  Discourse  delivered  by  Mr.  Webster.  —  Bunker  Hill 
Monument,  and  Address  by  Mr.  Webster  on  the  Laying  of  the  Corner- 
Stone,  17th  of  June,  1825.  —  Discourse  on  the  Completion  of  the  Monu 
ment,  17th  of  June,  1843. —  Simultaneous  Decease  of  Adams  and  Jefferson 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1826.—  Eulogy  by  Mr.  Webster  in  Faneuil  Hall. — 
Address  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner- Stone  of  the  New  Wing  of  the 
Capitol.  —  Remarks  on  the  Patriotic  Discourses  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  on 
the  Character  of  his  Eloquence  in  Efforts  of  this  Class. 

CHAPTER   V.  .........         Ixxii 

Election  to  Congress  from  Boston.  —  State  of  Parties.  —  Meeting  of  the 
Eighteenth  Congress.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Resolution  and  Speech  in  favor  of 
the  Greeks.  —  Argument  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Case  of  Gibbons 
and  Ogden.  —  Circumstances  under  which  it  was  made.  —  Speech  on  the 
Tariff  Law  of  1824.  —  A  complete  Revision  of  the  Law  for  the  Punish 
ment  of  Crimes  against  the  United  States  reported  by  Mr.  Webster,  and 
enacted.  —  The  Election  of  Mr.  Adams  as  President  of  the  United  States. 

—  Meeting  of  the  Nineteenth  Congress,  and  State  of  Parties.  —  Congress 
of  Panama,  and  Mr.  Webster's  Speech  on  that  Subject.  —  Election  as  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States.  —  Revision  of  the  Tariff  Law  by  the  Twen 
tieth    Congress.  —  Embarrassments    of    the  Question.  —  Mr.   Webster's 
Course  and  Speech  on  this  Subject. 

CHAPTER   VI Ixxxvii 

Election  of  General  Jackson.  —  Debate  on  Foot's  Resolution. —  Subject  of 
the  Resolution,  and  Objects  of  its  Mover.  — Mr.  Hayne's  First  Speech.  — 
Mr.  Webster's  original  Participation  in  the  Debate  unpremeditated.  —  His 
First  Speech.  —  Reply  of  Mr.  Hayne  with  increased  Asperity.  —  Mr. 
Webster's  Great  Speech.  —  Its  Threefold  Object.  —  Description  of  the 
Manner  of  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Delivery  of  this  Speech,  from  Mr.  March's 
"Reminiscences  of  Congress."  —  Reception  of  his  Speech  throughout  the 
.  Country. —  The  Dinner  at  New  York.  —  Chancellor  Kent's  Remarks.— 
Final  Disposal  of  Foot's  Resolution. —  Report  of  Mr.  Webster's  Speech.  — 
Mr.  Healey's  Painting. 

CHAPTER   VII. .         ci 

General  Character  of  President  Jackson's  Administrations.  —  Speedy  Dis 
cord  among  the  Parties  which  had  united  for  his  Elevation.  — Mr.  Web 
ster's  Relations  to  the  Administration.  —  Veto  of  the  Bank.— Rise  and 
Progress  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina.  —  The  Force  Bill,  and  the 


CONTENTS.  vii 

Reliance  of  General  Jackson's  Administration  on  Mr.  Webster's  Aid.  — 
His  Speech  in  Defence  of  the  Bill,  and  in  Opposition  to  Mr.  Calhoun's 
Resolutions.  —  Mr.  Madison's  Letter  on  Secession.  —  The  Removal  of  the 
Deposits.  —  Motives  for  that  Measure.  —  The  Resolution  of  the  Senate 
disapproving  it.  —  The  President's  Protest.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Speech  on 
the  Subject  of  the  Protest.  —  Opinions  of  Chancellor  Kent  and  Mr.  Taze- 
well.  —  The  Expunging  Resolution. — Mr.  Webster's  Protest  against  it. 

—  Mr.  Van  Buren's  Election.  —  The  Financial  Crisis  and  the  Extra  Ses 
sion  of  Congress.  —  The  Government  Plan  of  Finance  supported  by  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  opposed  by  Mr.  Webster. —  Personalities. —  Mr.  Webster's 
Visit  to  Europe  and  distinguished  Reception.  —  The  Presidential  Canvass 
of  1840.  —  Election  of  General  Harrison. 

CHAPTER  VIII.       .......         .        .        cxix 

Critical  State  of  Foreign  Affairs  on  the  Accession  of  General  Harrison.  — 
Mr.  Webster  appointed  to  the  State  Department.  —  Death  of  General 
Harrison.  —  Embarrassed  Relations  with  England.  —  Formation  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel's  Ministry,  and  Appointment  of  Lord  Ashburton  as  Special 
Minister  to  the  United  States.  —  Course  pursued  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the 
Negotiations.—  The  Northeastern  Boundary. — Peculiar  Difficulties  in  its 
Settlement  happily  overcome.  —  Other  Subjects  of  Negotiation.  —  Extra 
dition  of  Fugitives  from  Justice. —  Suppression  of  the  Slave-Trade  on 
the  Coast  of  Africa.  —  History  of  that  Question.  —  Affair  of  the  Caroline. 

—  Impressment.  —  Other  Subjects  connected  with  the  Foreign  Relations  of 
the  Government.  —  Intercourse  with  China.  —  Independence  of  the  Sand 
wich   Islands.  —  Correspondence  with  Mexico.  —  Sound   Duties  and  the 
Zoll-Verein.  —  Importance   of  Mr.   Webster's   Services   as  Secretary  of 
State. 

CHAPTER  IX.        .........         cxliii 

Mr.  Webster  resigns  his  Place  in  Mr.  Tyler's  Cabinet. — Attempts  to  draw 
public  Attention  to  the  projected  Annexation  of  Texas.  —  Supports  Mr. 
Clay's  Nomination  for  the  Presidency.  —  Causes  of  the  Failure  of  that 
Nomination.  —  Mr.  Webster  returns  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

—  Admission  of  Texas  to  the  Union.  —  The  War  with  Mexico. —  Mr. 
Webster's  Course  in  Reference  to  the  War.  —  Death  of  Major  Webster  in 
Mexico.  —  Mr.  Webster's  unfavorable  Opinion  of  the  Mexican  Govern 
ment. —  Settlement  of  the  Oregon  Controversy.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Agency 
in  effecting  the  Adjustment.  —  Revival  of  the  Sub-Treasury  System  and 
Repeal  of  the  Tariff  Law  of  1842.  —  Southern  Tour.  —  Success  of  the 
Mexican   War  and  Acquisition  of  the  Mexican  Provinces.  —  Efforts  in 
Congress  to  organize  a  Territorial  Government  for  these  Provinces.  — 
Great  Exertions  of  Mr.  Webster  on  the  last  Night  of  the  Session.  —  Nomi 
nation  of  General  Taylor,  and  Course  of  Mr.  Webster  in  Reference  to  it. 

—  A  Constitution  of  State  Government  adopted  by  California  prohibiting 
Slavery.  —  Increase  of  Antislavery  Agitation.  —  Alarming  State  of  Affairs. 

—  Mr.  Webster's  Speech  for  the  Union.—  Circumstances  under  which  it 
was  made,  and  Motives  by  which  he  was  influenced.  —  General  Taylor's 
Death,  and  the  Accession  of  Mr.  Fillmore  to  the  Presidency.  —  Mr.  Web 
ster  called  to  the  Department  of  State. 


viii  CONTENTS. 


SPEECHES  DELIVERED   ON  VARIOUS  PUBLIC  OCCASIONS. 

THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND     ....  1 

A  Discourse  delivered  at  Plymouth,  on  the  22d  of  December,  1820. 

THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT    ......    55 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  at  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1825. 

THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT         .         .         79 

An  Address  delivered  on  Bunker  Hill,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1843,  on  Occa 
sion  of  the  Completion  of  the  Monument. 

ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON  . 109 

A  Discourse  in  Commemoration  of  the  Lives  and  Services  of  John  Adams 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  on  the  2d  of 
August,  1826. 

THE  ELECTION  OF  1825 ..151 

A  Speech  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  3d  of  April,  1825,  at  a  Meeting 
preparatory  to  the  Election  of  that  Year. 

DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL      .......       161 

A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  at  Faneuil  Hall,  given  to  Mr.  Web 
ster,  at  the  Close  of  the  Session  of  Congress,  on  the  5th  of  June,  1828. 

THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION      .         .         .         .  175 

A  Lecture  read  before  the  Boston  Mechanics'  Institution,  on  the  12th  of  No 
vember,  1828,  as  an  Introduction  to  the  Course  of  the  Season. 

PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK        .         .         .         .         .         .191 

A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  given  by  a  large  Number  of  the  Citi 
zens  of  New  York  (Chancellor  Kent  in  the  Chair)  in  Honor  of  Mr.  Web 
ster,  on  the  10th  of  March,  1831. 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON    .       ,  .         .   .      .       *'.     -    •       217 

A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  in  the  City  of  Washington,  on  the 
22d  of  February,  1832,  that  being  the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  Wash 
ington's  Birth-Day. 


CONTENTS.  ix 

NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION  AT  WORCESTER         .       *.      235 

A  Speech  delivered  at  the  National  Republican  Convention  held  at  Worces 
ter  (Mass.),  on  the  12th  of  October,  1832,  preparatory  to  the  Annual 
Elections. 

RECEPTION  AT  BUFFALO  .         .         .         .         .     l    » -.;*-'?^     279 

Remarks  made  to  the  Citizens  of  Buffalo  (N.  Y.),  and  to  the  Mechanics  of 
that  Place,  June,  1833. 

RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG         .......       "285 

A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Reception  of  Mr.  "Webster  by  the  Citizens  of 
Pittsburg  (Pa.),  on  the  8th  of  July,  1833. 

RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR 307 

Remarks  made  to  the  Citizens  of  Bangor  (Me.),  on  Occasion  of  a  Public 
Reception  at  that  Place,  on  the  25th  of  August,  1835. 

PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE        .         .         .         .         .         .  317 

A  Speech  delivered  in  the  Odeon,  at  Boston,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1835, 
on  Occasion  of  the  Presentation  of  a  Vase  by  Citizens  of  that  Place. 

RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK        .......       337 

A  Speech  delivered  in  Niblo's  Saloon,  on  the  15th  of  March,  1837,  at  a 
Reception  of  Mr.  Webster  by  a  very  large  Number  of  the  Citizens  of 
New  York. 

RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING        .         .         .         .         .         .         .381 

A  Speech  delivered  on  the  17th  of  May,  1837,  at  a  Public  Dinner  given  to 
Mr.  Webster,  by  the  Citizens  of  Wheeling  (Va.). 

RECEPTION  AT  MADISON  .         .         .         .         .         .  395 

A  Speech  delivered  at  Madison,  in  the  State  of  Indiana,  on  the  1st  of  June 
1837,  on  Occasion  of  a  Public  Reception  by  the  Citizens  of  that  Place. 

PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL  .         .         .         .        .      4  J  \ 

A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner,  given  by  the  Citizens  of  Boston,  ir 
Faneuil  Hall,  to  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  Close  of  the  Session  of  Congress,  OP 
the  24th  of  July,  1838. 


x  CONTENTS. 

ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY        .   -     ,        »  ,      ?        «        .      433 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  First  Triennial  Celebration  of  the  Royal  Agri 
cultural  Society  of  England,  at  Oxford,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1839,  in 
Reply  to  a  Complimentary  Toast  from  the  Chair. 

THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND 441 

Remarks  upon  the  Present  State  of  the  Agriculture  of  England,  made  at  a 
Meeting  of  the  Members  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  and  others 
interested  in  Agriculture,  held  at  the  State-House  in  Boston,  on  the 
Evening  of  the  13th  of  January,  1840 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR 


PUBLIC    LIFE 


DANIEL     WEBSTER. 


EDWARD    EVERETT. 


xiv         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

nity  by  bringing  together  his  speeches  of  a  later  date  than 
those  contained  in  the  third  volume  of  the  former  collection, 
and  on  political  subjects  arising  since  that  time.  Few  periods 
of  our  history  will  be  entitled  to  be  remembered  by  events  of 
greater  moment,  such  as  the  admission  of  Texas  to  the  Union, 
the  settlement  of  the  Oregon  controversy,  the  Mexican  war,  the 
acquisition  of  California  and  other  Mexican  provinces,  and  the 
exciting  questions  which  have  grown  out  of  the  sudden  exten 
sion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  Rarely  have  public 
discussions  been  carried  on  with  greater  earnestness,  with 
more  important  consequences  visibly  at  stake,  or  with  greater 
ability.  The  speeches  made  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Senate, 
and  on  public  occasions  of  various  kinds,  during  the  progress 
of  these  controversies,  are  more  than  sufficient  to  fill  two 
new  volumes.  The  opportunity  of  their  collection  has  been 
taken  by  the  enterprising  publishers,  in  compliance  with  opin 
ions  often  expressed  by  the  most  respectable  individuals,  and 
with  a  manifest  public  demand,  to  bring  out  a  new  edition  of 
Mr.  Webster's  speeches  in  uniform  style.  Such  is  the  object 
of  the  present  publication.  The  first  two  volumes  contain  the 
speeches  delivered  by  him  on  a  great  variety  of  public  occa 
sions,  commencing  with  his  discourse  at  Plymouth  in  Decem 
ber,  1820.  Three  succeeding  volumes  embrace  the  greater  part 
of  the  speeches  delivered  in  the  Massachusetts  Convention  and 
in  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  beginning  with  the  speech  on 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  in  1816.  The  sixth  and  last 
volume  contains  the  legal  arguments  and  addresses  to  the  jury, 
the  diplomatic  papers,  and  letters  addressed  to  various  persons 
on  important  political  questions. 

The  collection  does  not  embrace  the  entire  series  of  Mr. 
Webster's  writings.  Such  a  series  would  have  required  a  larger 
number  of  volumes  than  was  deemed  advisable  with  reference 
to  the  general  circulation  of  the  work.  A  few  juvenile  perform 
ances  have  accordingly  been  omitted,  as  not  of  sufficient  im 
portance  or  maturity  to  be  included  in  the  collection.  Of  the 
earlier  speeches  in  Congress,  some  were  either  not  reported  at 
all,  or  in  a  manner  too  imperfect  to  be  preserved  without  doing 
injustice  to  the  author.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  collect 
from  the  contemporaneous  newspapers  or  Congressional  regis 
ters  the  short  conversational  speeches  and  remarks  made  by 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  Xv 

Mr.  Webster,  as  by  other  prominent  members  of  Congress,  in 
the  progress  of  debate,  and  sometimes  exercising  greater  influ 
ence  on  the  result  than  the  set  speeches.  Of  the  addresses  to 
public  meetings  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  embrace  more 
than  a  selection,  without  swelling  the  work  to  an  unreasonable 
size.  It  is  believed,  however,  that  the  contents  of  these  vol 
umes  furnish  a  fair  specimen  of  Mr.  Webster's  opinions  and 
sentiments  on  all  the  subjects  treated,  and  of  his  manner  of  dis 
cussing  them.  The  responsibility  of  deciding  what  should  be 
omitted  and  what  included  has  been  left  by  Mr.  Webster  to 
the  friends  having  the  charge  of  the  publication,  and  his  own 
opinion  on  details  of  this  kind  has  rarely  been  taken. 

In  addition  to  such  introductory  notices  as  were  deemed  ex 
pedient  relative  to  the  occasions  and  subjects  of  the  various 
speeches,  it  has  been  thought  advisable  that  the  collection 
should  be  accompanied  with  a  Biographical  Memoir,  presenting 
a  condensed  view  of  Mr.  Webster's  public  career,  with  a  few 
observations  by  way  of  commentary  on  the  principal  speeches. 
Many  things  which  might  otherwise  fitly  be  said  in  such  an 
essay  must,  it  is  true,  be  excluded  by  that  delicacy  which 
qualifies  the  eulogy  to  be  awarded  even  to  the  most  eminent 
living  worth.  Much  may  be  safely  omitted,  as  too  well  known 
to  need  repetition  in  this  community,  though  otherwise  pertain 
ing  to  a  full  survey  of  Mr.  Webster's  career.  In  preparing  the 
following  notice,  free  use  has  been  made  by  the  writer  of  the 
biographical  sketches  already  before  the  public.  Justice,  how 
ever,  requires  that  a  specific  acknowledgment  should  be  made 
to  an  article  in  the  American  Quarterly  Review  for  June, 
1831,  written,  with  equal  accuracy  and  elegance,  by  Mr.  George 
Ticknor,  and  containing  a  discriminating  estimate  of  the 
speeches  embraced  in  the  first  collection ;  and  also  to  the 
highly  spirited  and  vigorous  work  entitled  "  Reminiscences  of 
Congress,"  .by  Mr.  Charles  W.  March.  To  this  work  the  pres 
ent  sketch  is  largely  indebted  for  the  account  of  the  parentage 
and  early  life  of  Mr.  Webster ;  as  well  as  for  a  very  graphic 
description  of  the  debate  on  Foot's  resolution. 

The  family  of  Daniel  Webster  has  been  established  in  Amer 
ica  from  a  very  early  period.  It  was  of  Scottish  origin,  but 
passed  some  time  in  England  before  the  final  emigration. 


xvi          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Thomas  Webster,  the  remotest  ancestor  who  can  be  traced,  was 
settled  at  Hampton,  on  the  coast  of  New  Hampshire,  as  early 
as  1636,  sixteen  years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth,  and  six 
years  from  the  arrival  of  Governor  Winthrop  in  Massachusetts 
Bay.  The  descent  from  Thomas  Webster  to  Daniel  can  be 
traced  in  the  church  and  town  records  of  Hampton,  Kingston 
(now  East  Kingston),  and  Salisbury.  These  records  and  the 
mouldering  headstones  of  village  grave-yards  are  the  herald's 
office  of  the  fathers  of  New  England.  Noah  Webster,  the 
learned  author  of  the  American  Dictionary  of  the  English  Lan 
guage,  was  of  a  collateral  branch  of  the  family. 

Ebenezer  Webster,  the  father  of  Daniel,  is  still  recollected  in 
Kingston  and  Salisbury.  His  personal  appearance  was  strik 
ing.  He  was  erect,  of  athletic  stature,  six  feet  high,  broad  and 
full  in  the  chest.  Long  service  in  the  wars  had  given  him  a 
military  air  and  carriage.  He  belonged  to  that  intrepid  bordei 
race,  which  lined  the  whole  frontier  of  the  Anglo-American  col 
onies,  by  turns  farmers,  huntsmen,  and  soldiers,  and  passing 
their  lives  in  one  long  struggle  with  the  hardships  of  an  infan- 
settlement,  on  the  skirts  of  a  primeval  forest.  Ebenezer  Web 
ster  enlisted  early  in  life  as  a  common  soldier,  in  one  of  those 
formidable  companies  of  rangers,  which  rendered  such  impor 
tant  services  under  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst  and  Wolfe  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War.  He  followed  the  former  distinguished  leader  in 
the  invasion  of  Canada,  attracted  the  attention  and  gained 
the  good-will  of  his  superior  officers  by  his  brave  and  faithful 
conduct,  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  captain  before  the  end  of 
the  war. 

For  the  first  half  of  the  last  century  the  settlements  of  New 
Hampshire  had  made  but  little  progress  into  the  interior.  Ev 
ery  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain  in  Europe  was  the 
signal  of  an  irruption  of  the  Canadian  French  and  their  Indian 
allies  into  New  England.  As  late  as  1755  they  sacked  villages 
on  the  Connecticut  River,  and  John  Stark,  while  hunting  on 
Baker's  River,  three  years  before,  was  taken  a  prisoner  and  sold 
as  a  slave  into  Canada.  One  can  scarcely  believe  that  it  is 
not  yet  a  hundred  years  since  occurrences  like  these  took  place. 
The  cession  of  Canada  to  England  by  the  treaty  of  1763  en 
tirely  changed  this  state  of  things.  It  opened  the  pathways  of 
the  forest  and  the  gates  of  the  Western  hills.  The  royal  governor 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         xvii 

of  New  Hampshire,  Benning  Wentworth,  began  to  make  grants 
of  land  in  the  central  parts  of  the  State.  Colonel  Stevens  of 
Kingston,  with  some  of  his  neighbors,  mostly  retired  officers  and 
soldiers,  obtained  a  grant  of  the  town  of  Salisbury,  which  was 
at  first  called  Stevenstown,  from  the  principal  grantee.  This 
town  is  situated  exactly  at  the  point  where  the  Merrimack  River 
is  formed  by  the  confluence  of  the  Pemigewasset  and  Win- 
nipiseogee.  Captain  Webster  was  one  of  the  settlers  of  the 
newly  granted  township,  and  received  an  allotment  in  its  north 
erly  portion.  More  adventurous  than  others  of  the  company,  he 
cut  his  way  deeper  into  the  wilderness,  and  made  the  path  he 
could  not  find.  At  this  time  his  nearest  civilized  neighbors  on 
the  northwest  were  at  Montreal. 

The  following  allusion  of  Mr.  Webster  to  his  birthplace  will 
be  read  with  interest.  It  is  from  a  speech  delivered  before  a 
great  public  assembly  at  Saratoga,  in  the  year  1840. 

"  It  did  not  happen  to  me  to  be  born  in  a  log  cabin ;  but  my  elder 
brothers  and  sisters  were  born  in  a  log  cabin,  raised  amid  the  snow 
drifts  of  New  Hampshire,  at  a  period  so  early  that,  when  the  smoke  first 
rose  from  its  rude  chimney,  and  curled  over  the  frozen  hills,  there  was 
no  similar  evidence  of  a  white  man's  habitation  between  it  and  the  set 
tlements  on  the  rivers  of  Canada.  Its  remains  still  exist.  I  make  to  it 
an  annual  visit.  I  carry  my  children  to  it  to  teach  them  the  hardships  en 
dured  by  the  generations  which  have  gone  before  them.  I  love  to  dwell 
on  the  tender  recollections,  the  kindred  ties,  the  early  affections,  and  the 
touching  narratives  and  incidents,  which  mingle  with  all  I  know  of  this 
primitive  family  abode.  I  weep  to  think  that  none  of  those  who  inhabited 
it  are  now  among  the  living  ;  and  if  ever  I  am  ashamed  of  it,  or  if  I  ever 
fail  in  affectionate  veneration  for  HIM  who  reared  and  defended  it  against 
savage  violence  and  destruction,  cherished  all  the  domestic  virtues  be 
neath  its  roof,  and,  through  the  fire  and  blood  of  seven  years'  revolu 
tionary  war,  shrunk  from  no  danger,  no  toil,  no  sacrifice,  to  serve  his 
country,  and  to  raise  his  children  to  a  condition  better  than  his  own, 
may  my  name  and  the  name  of  my  posterity  be  blotted  for  ever  from 
the  memory  of  mankind ! " 

Soon  after  his  settlement  in  Salisbury,  the  first  wife  of  Eben- 
ezer  Webster  having  deceased,  he  married  Abigail  Eastman, 
who  became  the  mother  of  Ezekiel  and  Daniel  Webster,  the 
only  sons  of  the  second  marriage.  Like  the  mothers  of  so  many 
men  of  eminence,  she  was  a  woman  of  more  than  ordinary  in 
tellect,  and  possessed  a  force  of  character  which  was  felt  through- 


xviii       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER., 

out  the  humble  circle  in  which  she  moved.  She  was  proud  of 
her  sons  and  ambitious  that  they  should  excel.  Her  anticipa 
tions  went  beyond  the  narrow  sphere  in  which  their  lot  seemed 
to  be  cast,  and  the  distinction  attained  by  both,  and  especially 
by  the  younger,  may  well  be  traced  in  part  to  her  early  prompt 
ings  and  judicious  guidance. 

About  the  time  of  his  second  marriage,  Captain  Ebenezer 
Webster  erected  a  frame  house  hard  by  the  log  cabin.  He  dug 
a  well  near  it  and  planted  an  elm  sapling.  In  this  house  Daniel 
Webster  was  born.  It  has  long  since  disappeared,  but  the  spot 
where  it  stood  is  well  known,  and  is  covered  by  a  house  since 
built.  The  cellar  of  the  log  cabin  is  still  visible,  though  partly 
filled  with  the  accumulations  of  seventy  years.  "  The  well 
still  remains,"  says  Mr.  March,  "  with  water  as  pure,  as  coo], 
and  as  limpid  as  when  first  brought  to  light,  and  will  remain 
in  all  probability  for  ages,  to  refresh  hereafter  the  votaries  of  ge 
nius  who  make  their  pilgrimage  hither,  to  visit  the  cradle  of 
one  of  her  greatest  sons.  The  elm  that  shaded  the  boy  still 
flourishes  in  vigorous  leaf,  and  may  have  an  existence  beyond 
its  perishable  nature.  Like 

1  The  witch-elm  that  guards  St.  Fillan's  spring,' 

it  may  live  in  story  long  after  leaf,  and  branch,  and  root  have 
disappeared  for  ever." 

The  interval  between  the  peace  of  1763  and  the  breaking  out 
of  the  war  of  the  Revolution  was  one  of  excitement  and  anxiety 
throughout  the  Colonies.  The  great  political  questions  of  the 
day  were  not  only  discussed  in  the  towns  and  cities,  but  in  the 
villages  and  hamlets.  Captain  Webster  took  a  deep  interest 
in  those  discussions.  Like  so  many  of  the  officers  and  soldiers 
of  the  former  war,  he  obeyed  the  first  call  to  arms  in  the  new 
struggle.  He  commanded  a  company,  chiefly  composed  of  his 
own  townspeople,  friends,  and  kindred,  who  followed  him 
through  the  greater  portion  of  the  war.  He  was  at  the  battle 
of  White  Plains,  and  was  at  West  Point  when  the  treason  of 
Arnold  was  discovered.  He  acted  as  a  Major  under  Stark  at 
Bennington,  and  contributed  his  share  to  the  success  of  that 
eventful  day. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  on  the  18th  of 
January,  1782,  Daniel  Webster  was  born,  in  the  home  which  his 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          Xrx 

father  had  established  on  the  outskirts  of  civilization.  If  the 
character  and  situation  of  the  place,  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  passed  the  first  years  of  his  life,  might  seem  ad 
verse  to  the  early  cultivation  of  his  extraordinary  talent,  it  still 
cannot  be  doubted  that  they  possessed  influences  favorable  to 
elevation  and  strength  of  character.  The  hardships  of  an  infant 
settlement  and  border  life,  the  traditions  of  a  long  series  of 
Indian  wars,  and  of  two  mighty  national  contests,  in  which 
an  honored  parent  had  borne  his  part,  the  anecdotes  of  Fort 
William  Henry,  of  Quebec,  of  Bennington,  of  West  Point,  of 
Wolfe  and  Stark  and  Washington,  the  great  Iliad  and  Odys 
sey  of  American  Independence,  —  this  was  the  fireside  enter 
tainment  of  the  long  winter  evenings  of  the  secluded  village 
home.  Abroad,  the  uninviting  landscape,  the  harsh  and  craggy 
outline  of  the  hills  broken  and  relieved  only  by  the  funereal 
hemlock  and  the  "cloud  seeking"  pine,  the  lowlands  trav 
ersed  in  every  direction  by  unbridged  streams,  the  tall,  charred 
trunks  in  the  cornfields,  that  told  how  stem  had  been  the 
struggle  with  the  boundless  woods,  and,  at  the  close  of  the  year, 
the  dismal  scene  which  presents  itself  in  high  latitudes  in  a 
thinly  settled  region,  when 

"  the  snows  descend  ;  and,  foul  and  fierce, 
All  winter  drives  along  the  darkened  air  "  ;  — 

these  are  circumstances  to  leave  an  abiding  impression  on  the 
mind  of  a  thoughtful  child,  and  induce  an  early  maturity  of 
character. 

Mr.  March  has  described  an  incident  of  Mr.  Webster's  earli 
est  youth  in  a  manner  so  graphical,  that  we  are  tempted  to  re 
peat  it  in  his  own  words  :  — 

"  In  Mr.  Webster's  earliest  youth  an  occurence  of  such  a  nature  took 
place,  which  affected  him  deeply  at  the  time,  and  has  dwelt  in  his  mem 
ory  ever  since.  There  was  a  sudden  and  extraordinary  rise  in  the  Mer- 
rimack  River,  in  a  spring  thaw.  A  deluge  of  rain  for  two  whole  days 
poured  down  upon  the  houses.  A  mass  of  mingled  water  and  snow 
rushed  rnadly  from  the  hills,  inundating  the  fields  far  and  wide.  The 
highways  were  broken  up,  and  rendered  undistinguishable.  There  was 
no  way  for  neighbors  to  interchange  visits  of  condolence  or  necessity, 
save  by  boats,  which  came  up  to  the  very  door-steps  of  the  houses. 

"  Many  things  of  value  were  swept  away,  even  things  of  bulk.  A 
large  barn,  full  fifty  feet  by  twenty,  crowded  with  hay  and  grain,  sheep, 


xx  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

chickens,  and  turkeys,  sailed  majestically  down  the  river,  before  the 
eyes  of  the  astonished  inhabitants ;  who,  no  little  frightened,  got  ready 
to  fly  to  the  mountains,  or  construct  another  ark. 

"  The  roar  of  waters,  as  they  rushed  over  precipices,  casting  the 
foam  and  spray  far  above,  the  crashing  of  the  forest- trees  as  the  storm 
broke  through  them,  the  immense  sea  everywhere  in  range  of  the  eye, 
the  sublimity,  even  danger,  of  the  scene,  made  an  indelible  impression 
upon  the  mind  of  the  youthful  observer. 

"  Occurrences  and  scenes  like  these  excite  the  imaginative  faculty, 
furnish  material  for  proper  thought,  call  into  existence  new  emotions, 
give  decision  to  character,  and  a  purpose  to  action."  —  pp.  7,  8. 

It  may  well  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Webster's  early  opportu 
nities  for  education  were  very  scanty.  It  is  indeed  correctly 
remarked  by  Mr.  Ticknor,  in  reference  to  this  point,  that  "in 
New  England,  ever  since  the  first  free  school  was  established 
amidst  the  woods  that  covered  the  peninsula  of  Boston  in  1636, 
the  schoolmaster  has  been  found  on  the  border  line  between 
savage  and  civilized  life,  often  indeed  with  an  axe  to  open  his 
own  path,  but  always  looked  up  to  with  respect,  and  always 
carrying  with  him  a  valuable  and  preponderating  influence." 
Still,  however,  compared  with  any  thing  that  would  be  called  a 
good  school  in  this  region  and  at  the  present  time,  the  schools 
which  existed  on  the  frontier  sixty  years  ago  were  sadly  defec 
tive.  Many  of  our  district  schools  even  now  are  below  their 
reputation.  The  Swedish  Chancellor's  exclamation  of  wonder 
at  the  little  wisdom  with  which  the  world  is  governed,  might 
well  be  repeated  at  the  little  learning  and  skill  with  which  the 
scholastic  world  in  too  many  parts  of  our  country  is  still  taught. 
In  Mr.  Webster's  boyhood  it  was  much  worse.  Something  that 
was  called  a  school  was  kept  for  two  or  three  months  in  the 
winter,  frequently  by  an  itinerant,  too  often  a  pretender,  claiming 
only  to  teach  a  little  reading,  writing,  and  ciphering,  and  wholly 
incompetent  to  give  any  valuable  assistance  to  a  clever  youth 
in  learning  either. 

Such  as  the  village  school  was,  Mr.  Webster  enjoyed  its 
advantages,  if  they  could  be  called  by  that  name.  It  was, 
however,  of  a  migratory  character.  When  it  was  near  his 
father's  residence  it  was  easy  to  attend ;  but  it  was  sometimes 
in  a  distant  part  of  the  town,  and  sometimes  in  another  town. 
While  he  was  quite  young,  he  was  daily  sent  two  miles  and  a 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  xxi 

half  or  three  miles  to  school  in  mid-winter  and  on  foot.  If  the 
school-house  lay  in  the  same  direction  with  the  miller  or  the 
blacksmith,  an  occasional  ride  might  be  hoped  for.  If  the 
school  was  removed  to  a  still  greater  distance,  he  was  boarded 
at  a  neighbor's.  Poor  as  these  opportunities  of  education  were, 
they  were  bestowed  on  Mr.  Webster  more  liberally  than  on  his 
brothers.  He  showed  a  greater  eagerness  for  learning ;  and  he 
was  thought  of  too  frail  a  constitution  for  any  robust  pursuit. 
An  older  half-brother  good-humoredly  said,  that  "  Dan  was  sent 
to  school  that  he  might  get  to  know  as  much  as  the  other  boys." 
It  is  probable  that  the  best  part  of  his  education  was  derived  from 
the  judicious  and  experienced  father,  and  the  strong-minded, 
affectionate,  and  ambitious  mother. 

Mr.  Webster's  first  master  was  Thomas  Chase.  He  could 
read  tolerably  well,  and  wrote,  a  fair  hand ;  but  spelling  was  not 
his  forte.  His  second  master  was  James  Tappan,  now  living 
at  an  advanced  age  in  Gloucester,  Massachusetts.  His  quali 
fications  as  a  teacher  far  exceeded  those  of  Master  Chase.  The 
worthy  veteran,  now  dignified  with  the  title  of  Colonel,  feels  a 
pride,  it  may  well  be  supposed,  in  the  fame  of  his  quondam 
pupil.  He  lately  addressed  a  letter  to  him,  recounting  some  of 
the  incidents  of  his  own  life  since  he  taught  school  at  Salis 
bury.  This  unexpected  communication  from  his  aged  teacher 
drew  from  Mr.  Webster  the  following  answer,  in  which  a  hand 
some  gratuity  was  inclosed,  more,  probably,  than  the  old  gen 
tleman  ever  received  for  a  winter's  teaching  at  "  New  Salis 
bury."  * 

"  Washington,  February  26,  1851. 

"  MASTER  TAPPAN,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  letter,  and  am  rejoiced  to 
know  that  you  are  among  the  living.  I  remember  you  perfectly  well  as 
a  teacher  of  my  infant  years.  I  suppose  my  mother  must  have  taught 
me  to  read  very  early,  as  I  have  never  been  able  to  recollect  the  time 
when  I  could  not  read  the  Bible.  I  think  Master  Chase  was  my  earliest 
schoolmaster,  probably  when  I  was  three  or  four  years  old.  Then  came 
Master  Tappan.  You  boarded  at  our  house,  and  sometimes,  I  think,  in 
the  family  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Sanborn,  our  neighbor,  the  lame  man. 
Most  of  those  whom  you  knew  in  c  New  Salisbury '  have  gone  to  their 
graves.  Mr.  John  Sanborn,  the  son  of  Benjamin,  is  yet  living,  and  is 

*  Fifty  dollars.  The  knowledge  of  this  fact  is  derived  from  the  "  Gloucester 
News,"  to  which  it  was  no  doubt  communicated  by  Master  Tappan. 


xxii        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

about  your  age.  Mr.  John  Colby,  who  married  my  oldest  sister,  Su« 
sannah,  is  also  living.  On  the  ;  North  Road  '  is  Mr.  Benjamin  Hunton, 
and  on  the  '  South  Road '  is  Mr.  Benjamin  Pettengil.  I  think  of  none 
else  among  the  living  whom  you  would  probably  remember. 

"  You  have  indeed  lived  a  checkered  life.  I  hope  you  have  been 
able  to  bear  prosperity  with  meekness,  and  adversity  with  patience. 
These  things  are  all  ordered  for  us  far  better  than  we  could  order  them 
for  ourselves.  We  may  pray  for  our  daily  bread ;  we  may  pray  for 
the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  we  may  pray  to  be  kept  from  temptation,  and 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  may  come,  in  us,  and  in  all  men,  and  his  will 
everywhere  be  done.  Beyond  this,  we  hardly  know  for  what  good  to 
supplicate  the  Divine  Mercy.  Our  Heavenly  Father  knoweth  what  we 
have  need  of  better  than  we  know  ourselves,  and  we  are  sure  that  his 
eye  and  his  loving-kindness  are  upon  us  and  around  us  eveiy  moment. 

"  I  thank  you  again,  my  good  old  schoolmaster,  for  your  kind  letter, 
which  has  awakened  many  sleeping  recollections ;  and,  with  all  good 
wishes,  I  remain  your  friend  and  pupil, 

"DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  MR.  JAMES  TAPPAN." 

He  derived,  also,  no  small  benefit  from  the  little  social  library, 
which,  chiefly  by  the  exertions  of  Mr.  Thompson  (the  intelli 
gent  lawyer  of  the  place),  the  clergyman,  and  Mr.  Webster's 
father,  had  been  founded  in  Salisbury.  The  attention  of  the 
people  of  New  Hampshire  had  been  called  to  this  mode  of  pro 
moting  general  and  popular  education  by  Dr.  Belknap.  In  the 
patriotic  address  to  the  people  of  New  Hampshire,  at  the  close 
of  his  excellent  History,  he  says :  — 

"  This  (the  establishment  of  social  libraries)  is  the  easiest,  the  cheap 
est,  and  the  most  effectual  mode  of  diffusing  knowledge  among  the 
people.  For  the  sum  of  six  or  eight  dollars  at  once,  and  a  small  annual 
payment  besides,  a  man  may  be  supplied  with  the  means  of  literary  im 
provement  during  his  life,  and  his  children  may  inherit  the  blessing."  * 

From  the  village  library  at  Salisbury,  founded  on  recommen 
dations  like  these,  Mr.  Webster  was  able  to  obtain  a  moderate 
supply  of  good  reading.  It  is  quite  worth  noticing,  that  his 
attention,  like  that  of  Franklin,  was  in  early  boyhood  attracted 
to  the  Spectator.  Franklin,  as  is  well  known,  studiously  formed 
nis  style  on  that  of  Addison;  —  and  a  considerable  resemblance 
may  be  traced  between  them.  There  is  no  such  resemblance 

*  Belknap's  History  of  New  Hampshire,  Vol.  III.  p.  328. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        xxiii 

between  Mr.  Webster's  style  and  that  of  Addison,  unless  it  be 
the  negative  merit  of  freedom  from  balanced  sentences,  hard 
words,  ancl  inversions.  It  may,  no  doubt,  have  been  partly 
owing  to  his  early  familiarity  with  the  Spectator,  that  he  escaped 
in  youth  from  the  turgidity  and  pomp  of  the  Johnsonian  school, 
and  grew  up  to  the  mastery  of  that  direct  and  forcible,  but  not 
harsh  and  affected  sententiousness,  that  masculine  simplicity, 
with  which  his  speeches  and  writings  are  so  strongly  marked. 

The  year  before  Mr.  Webster  was  born  was  rendered  mem- 
•  orable  in  New  Hampshire  by  the  foundation  of  the  Academy 
at  Exeter,  through  the  munificence  of  the  Honorable  John  Phil 
lips.  His  original  endowment  is  estimated  by  Dr.  Belknap  at 
nearly  ten  thousand  pounds,  which,  in  the  comparative  scarcity 
of  money  in  1781,  cannot  be  considered  as  less  than  three  times 
that  amount  at  the  present  day.  Few  events  are  more  likely  to 
be  regarded  as  eras  in  the  history  of  that  State.  In  the  year 
1788,  Dr.  Benjamin  Abbot,  soon  afterwards  its  principal,  became 
connected  with  the  Academy  as  an  instructor,  and  from  that 
time  it  assumed  the  rank  which  it  still  maintains  among  the 
schools  of  the  country.  To  this  Academy  Mr.  W'ebster  was 
taken  by  his  father  in  May,  1796.  He  enjoyed  the  advantage 
of  only  a  few  months'  instruction  in  this  excellent  school ;  but, 
short  as  the  period  was,  his  mind  appears  to  have  received  an 
impulse  of  a  most  genial  and  quickening  character.  Nothing 
could  be  more  graceful  or  honorable  to  both  parties  than  the 
tribute  paid  by  Mr.  Webster  to  his  ancient  instructor,  at  the  fes 
tival  at  Exeter,  in  1838,  in  honor  of  Dr.  Abbot's  jubilee.  While 
at  the  Academy,  his  studies  were  aided  and  his  efforts  encour 
aged  by  a  pupil  younger  than  himself,  but  who,  having  enjoyed 
better  advantages  of  education  in  boyhood,  was  now  in  the  sen 
ior  class  at  Exeter,  the  early  celebrated  and  lamented  Joseph 
Stevens  Buckminster.  The  following  anecdote  from  Mr.  March's 
work  will  not  be  thought  out  of  place  in  this  connection :  — 

"  It  may  appear  somewhat  singular  that  the  greatest  orator  of  mod 
ern  times  should  have  evinced  in  his  boyhood  the  strongest  antipathy  to 
public  declamation.  This  fact,  however,  is  established  by  his  own 
words,  which  have  recently  appeared  in  print.  c  I  believe,'  says  Mr. 
Webster,  '  I  made  tolerable  progress  in  most  branches  which  I  attended 
to  while  in  this  school ;  but  there  was  one  thing  I  could  not  do.  I  could 
not  make  a  declamation.  I  could  not  speak  before  the  school.  The 


xxiv        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

kind  and  excellent  Buckrninster  sought  especially  to  persuade  me  to  per 
form  the  exercise  of  declamation,  like  other  boys,  but  I  could  not  do  it. 
Many  a  piece  did  I  commit  to  memory,  and  recite  and  rehearse  in  my 
own  room,  over  and  over  again  ;  yet  when  the  day  came,  when  the 
school  collected  to  hear  declamations,  when  my  name  was  called,  and  I 
saw  all  eyes  turned  to  my  seat,  I  could  not  raise  myself  from  it. 
Sometimes  the  instructors  frowned,  sometimes  they  smiled.  Mr.  Buck- 
minster  always  pressed  and  entreated,  most  winningly,  that  I  would  ven 
ture.  But  I  never  could  command  sufficient  resolution.'  Such  diffi 
dence  of  its  own  powers  may  be  natural  to  genius,  nervously  fearful  of 
being  unable  to  reach  that  ideal  which  it  proposes  as  the  only  full  con 
summation  of  its  wishes.  It  is  fortunate,  however,  for  the  age,  fortu 
nate  for  all  ages,  that  Mr.  Webster  by  determined  will  and  frequent  trial 
overcame  this  moral  incapacity,  as  his  great  prototype,  the  Grecian 
orator,  subdued  his  physical  defect."  —  pp.  12,  13. 

The  effect  produced,  even  at  that  early  period  of  Mr.  Web 
ster's  life,  on  the  mind  of  a  close  observer  of  his  mental  powers, 
is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  following  anecdote.  Mr.  Nicho 
las  Emery,  afterwards  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  judge,  and 
now  living  in  Portland,  was  temporarily  employed,  at  that 
time,  as  an  usher  in  the  Academy.  On  entering  the  .Acad 
emy,  Mr.  Webster  was  placed  in  the  lowest  class,  which  con 
sisted  of  half  a  dozen  boys,  of  no  remarkable  brightness  of  intel 
lect.  Mr.  Emery  was  the  instructor  of  this  class,  among  others. 
At  the  end  of  a  month,  after  morning  recitations,  "  Webster," 
said  Mr.  Emery,  "  you  will  pass  into  the  other  room  and  join  a 
higher  class  " ;  and  added,  "  Boys,  you  will  take  your  final  leave 
of  Webster,  you  will  never  see  him  again." 

After  a  few  months  well  spent  at  Exeter,  Mr.  Webster  re 
turned  home,  and  in  February,  1797,  was  placed  by  his  father 
under  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wood,  the  minister  of  the  neighboring 
town  of  Boscawen.  He  lived  in  Mr.  Wood's  family,  and  for 
board  and  instruction  the  entire  charge  was  one  dollar  per  week. 

On  their  way  to  Mr.  Wood's,  Mr.  Webster's  father  first 
opened  to  his  son,  now  fifteen  years  old,  the  design  of  sending 
him  to  college,  the  thought  of  which  had  never  before  entered 
his  mind.  The  advantages  of  a  college  education  were  a 
privilege  to  which  he  had  never  aspired  in  his  most  ambitious 
dreams.  "  I  remember,"  says  Mr.  Webster,  in  an  autobiograph 
ical  memorandum  of  his  boyhood,  "the  very  hill  which  we 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         Xxv 

were  ascending,  through  deep  snows,  in  a  New  England  sleigh, 
when  my  father  made  known  this  purpose  to  me.  I  could  not 
speak.  How  could  he,  I  thought,  with  so  large  a  family  and  in 
such  narrow  circumstances,  think  of  incurring  so  great  an  ex 
pense  for  me.  A  warm  glow  ran  all  over  me,  and  I  laid  my 
head  on  rny  father's  shoulder  and  wept." 

In  truth,  a  college  education  was  a  far  different  affair  fifty 
years  ago  from  what  it  has  since  become,  by  the  multiplication 
of  collegiate  institutions,  and  the  establishment  of  public  funds 
in  aid  of  those  who  need  assistance.  It  constituted  a  person  at 
once  a  member  of  an  intellectual  aristocracy.  In  many  cases  it 
really  conferred  qualifications,  and  in  all  was  supposed  to  do  so, 
without  which  professional  and  public  life  could  not  be  en 
tered  upon  with  any  hope  of  success.  In  New  England,  at 
that  time,  it  was  not  a  common  occurrence  that  any  one  at 
tained  a  respectable  position  in  either  of  the  professions  without 
this  advantage.  In  selecting  the  member  of  the  family  who 
should  enjoy  this  privilege,  the  choice  not  unfrequently  fell  upon 
the  son  whose  slender  frame  and  early  indications  of  disease  un 
fitted  him  for  the  laborious  life  of  our  New  England  yeomanry. 

From  February  till  August,  1797,  Mr.  Webster  remained  un 
der  the  instruction  of  Mr.  Wood,  at  Boscawen,  and  completed 
his  preparation  for  college.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that 
the  preparation  was  imperfect.  There  is  probably  no  period  in 
the  history  of  the  country  at  which  the  standard  of  classical 
literature  stood  lower  than  it  did  at  the  close  of  the  last  cen 
tury.  The  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin  brought  by  our 
forefathers  from  England  had  almost  run  out  in  the  lapse  of 
nearly  two  centuries,  and  the  signal  revival  which  has  taken 
place  within  the  last  thirty  years  had  not  yet  begun.  Still, 
however,  when  we  hear  of  a  youth  of  fifteen  preparing  himself 
for  college  by  a  year's  study  of  Greek  and  Latin,  we  must  recol 
lect  that  the  attainments  which  may  be  made  in  that  time  by  a 
young  man  of  distinguished  talent,  at  the  period  of  life  when 
the  faculties  develop  themselves  with  the  greatest  energy,  study 
ing  night  and  day,  summer  and  winter,  under  the  master  influ 
ence  of  hope,  ambition,  and  necessity,  are  not  to  be  measured 
by  the  tardy  progress  of  the  thoughtless  or  languid  children  of 
prosperity,  sent  to  school  from  the  time  they  are  able  to  go 
alone,  and  carried  along  by  routine  and  discipline  from  year  to 

VOL.  i.  c 


xxvi        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

year,  in  the  majority  of  cases  without  strong  personal  motives  to 
diligence.  Besides  this,  it  is  to  be  considered  that  the  studies 
which  occupy  this  usually  prolonged  novitiate  are  those  which 
are  required  for  the  acquisition  of  grammatical  and  metrical 
niceties,  the  elegancies  and  the  luxuries  of  scholarship.  Short 
as  was  his  period  of  preparation,  it  enabled  Mr.  Webster  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  a  knowledge  of  the  classical  writers,  espe 
cially  the  Latin,  which  was  greatly  increased  in  college,  and 
which  has  been  kept  up  by  constant  recurrence  to  the  great  mod 
els  of  antiquity,  during  the  busiest  periods  of  active  life.  The 
happiness  of  Mr.  Webster's  occasional  citations  from  the  Latin 
classics  is  a  striking  feature  of  his  oratory. 

Mr.  Webster  entered  college  in  1797,  and  passed  the  four 
academic  years  in  assiduous  study.  He  was  not  only  distin 
guished  for  his  attention  to  the  prescribed  studies,  but  devoted 
himself  to  general  reading,  especially  to  English  history  and  lit 
erature.  He  took  part  in  the  publication  of  a  little  weekly 
newspaper,  furnishing  selections  from  books  and  magazines,  with 
an  occasional  article  from  his  own  pen.  He  delivered  addresses, 
also,  before  the  college  societies,  some  of  which  were  published. 
The  winter  vacations  brought  no  relaxation.  Like  those  of  so 
many  of  the  meritorious  students  at  our  places  of  education, 
they  were  employed  in  teaching  school,  for  the  purpose  of  eking 
out  his  own  frugal  means  and  aiding  his  brother  to  prepare  him 
self  for  college.  The  attachment  between  the  two  brothers  was 
of  the  most  affectionate  kind,  and  it  was  by  the  persuasion  of 
Daniel  that  the  father  had  been  induced  to  extend  to  Ezekiel 
also  the  benefits  of  a  college  education. 

The  genial  and  companionable  spirit  of  Mr.  Webster  is  still 
remembered  by  his  classmates,  and  by  the  close  of  his  first  col 
lege  year  he  had  given  proof  of  powers  and  aspirations  which 
placed  him  far  above  rivalry  among  his  associates.  "  It  is 
known,"  says  Mr.  Ticknor,  "in  many  ways,  that,  by  those 
who  were  acquainted  with  him  at  this  period  of  life,  he  was  al 
ready  regarded  as  a  marked  man,  and  that  to  the  more  saga 
cious  of  them  the  honors  of  his  subsequent  career  have  not 
been  unexpected." 

Mr.  Webster  completed  his  college  course  in  August,  1801, 
and  immediately  entered  the  office  of  Mr.  Thompson,  the  next- 
door  neighbor  of  his  father,  as  a  student  of  law.  Mr.  Thomp- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      xxvii 

son  was  a  gentleman  of  education  and  intelligence,  and,  at  a 
later  period,  a  respectable  member,  successively,  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He 
maintained  a  high  character  till  his  death.  Mr.  Webster  re 
mained  in  his  office  as  a  student  till,  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
March,  "  he  felt  it  necessary  to  go  somewhere  and  do  some 
thing  to  earn  a  little  money."  In  this  emergency,  application 
was  made  to  him  to  take  charge  of  an  academy  at  Fryeburg  in 
Maine,  upon  a  salary  of  about  one  dollar  per  diem,  being  what 
is  now  paid  for  the  coarsest  kind  of  unskilled  manual  labor. 
As  he  was  able,  besides,  to  earn  enough  to  pay  for  his  board 
and  to  defray  his  other  expenses  by  acting  as  assistant  to  the 
register  of  deeds  for  the  county,  his  salary  was  all  saved,  —  a 
fund  for  his  own  professional  education  and  to  help  his  brother 
through  college. 

Mr.  Webster's  son  and  one  of  his  friends  have  lately  visited 
Fryeburg  and  examined  these  records  of  deeds.  They  are  still 
preserved  in  two  huge  folio  volumes,  in  Mr.  Webster's  hand 
writing,  exciting  wonder  how  so  much  work  could  be  done  in 
the  evening,  after  days  of  close  confinement  to  the  business  of 
the  school.  They  looked  also  at  the  records  of  the  trustees  of 
the  academy  and  found  in  them  a  most  respectful  and  affec 
tionate  vote  of  thanks  and  good-will  to  Mr.  Webster  when  he 
took  leave  of  the  employment.* 

These  humble  details  need  no  apology.  They  relate  to  trials, 
hardships,  and  efforts  which  constitute  no  small  part  of  the 
discipline  by  which  a  great  character  is  formed.  During  his 
residence  at  Fryeburg,  Mr.  Webster  borrowed  (he  was  too  poor 
to  buy)  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  read  them  for  the  first 
time.  "  Among  other  mental  exercises,"  says  Mr.  March,  "  he 
committed  to  memory  Mr.  Ames's  celebrated  speech  on  the 
British  treaty."  In  after  life  he  has  been  heard  to  say,  that 
few  things  moved  him  more  than  the  perusal  and  reperusal  of 
this  celebrated  speech. 

In  September,  1802,  Mr.  Webster  returned  to  Salisbury,  and 
resumed  his  studies  under  Mr.  Thompson,  in  whose  office  he 

*  The  old  school-house  was  burned  down  many  years  ago.  The  spot  on 
which  it  stood  belongs  to  Mr.  Robert  J.  Bradley,  who  has  inherited  from  his 
father  a  devoted  friendship  for  Mr.  Webster,  and  who  would  never  suffer  any 
other  building  to  be  erected  on  the  spot,  and  says  that  none  shall  be  during  his 
life. 


xxviii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

remained  for  eighteen  months.  Mr.  Thompson,  though,  as  we 
have  said,  a  person  of  excellent  character  and  a  good  lawyer, 
yet  seems  not  to  have  kept  pace  in  his  profession  with  the 
progress  of  improvement.  Although  Blackstone's  Commenta 
ries  had  been  known  in  this  country  for  a  full  generation,  Mr. 
Thompson  still  directed  the  reading  of  his  pupils  on  the  prin 
ciple  of  the  hardest  book  first.  Coke's  Littleton  was  still  the 
work  with  which  his  students  were  broken  into  the  study  of 
the  profession.  Mr.  Webster  has  condemned  this  practice. 
"  A  boy  of  twenty,"  says  he,  "  with  no  previous  knowledge  of 
such  subjects,  cannot  understand  Coke.  It  is  folly  to  set  him 
upon  such  an  author.  There  are  propositions  in  Coke  so  ab 
stract,  and  distinctions  so  nice,  and  doctrines  embracing  so 
many  distinctions  and  qualifications,  that  it  requires  an  effort 
not  only  of  a  mature  mind,  but  of  a  mind  both  strong  and 
mature,  to  understand  him.  Why  disgust  and  discourage  a 
young  man  by  telling  him  he  must  break  into  his  profession 
through  such  a  wall  as  this  ?  "  Acting  upon  these  views,  even 
in  his  youth,  Mr.  Webster  gave  his  attention  to  more  intelli 
gible  authors,  and  to  titles  of  law  of  greater  importance  in  this 
country  than  the  curious  learning  of  tenures,  many  of  which 
are  antiquated,  even  in  England.  He  also  gave  a  good  deal  of 
time  to  general  reading,  and  especially  the  study  of  the  Latin 
classics,  English  history,  and  the  volumes  of  Shakspeare.  In 
order  to  obtain  a  wider  compass  of  knowledge,  and  to  learn 
something  of  the  language  not  to  be  gained  from  the  clas 
sics,  he  read  through  attentively  Puffendorff 's  Latin  History  of 
England. 

In  July,  1804,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Boston.  Before 
entering  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  he  enjoyed  the  ad 
vantage  of  pursuing  his  legal  studies  for  six  or  eight  months  in 
the  office  of  the  Hon.  Christopher  Gore.  This  was  a  fortunate 
event  for  Mr.  Webster.  Mr.  Gore,  afterwards  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  was  a  lawyer  of  eminence,  a  statesman  and  a 
civilian,  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  of  manners,  and  a  rare 
example  of  distinguished  intellectual  qualities,  united  with  prac 
tical  good  sense  and  judgment.  He  had  passed  several  years 
in  England  as  a  commissioner,  under  Jay's  treaty,  for  liquidat 
ing  the  claims  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  for  seizures  by 
British  cruisers  in  the  early  wars  of  the  French  Revolution. 


BIOGRAPHICAL,  MEMOIK  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      xxbc 

His  library,  amply  furnished  with  works  of  professional  and 
general  literature,  his  large  experience  of  men  and  things  at 
home  and  abroad,  and  his  uncommon  amenity  of  temper,  com 
bined  to  make  the  period  passed  by  Mr.  Webster  in  his  office 
one  of  the  pleasantest  in  his  life.  These  advantages,  it  hardly 
need  be  said,  were  not  thrown  away.  He  diligently  attended 
the  sessions  of  the  courts  and  reported  their  decisions.  He 
read  with  care  the  leading  elementary  works  of  the  common 
and  municipal  law,  with  the  best  authors  on  the  law  of  nations, 
some  of  them  for  a  second  and  third  time ;  diversifying  these 
professional  studies  with  a  great  amount  and  variety  of  general 
reading.  His  chief  study,  however,  was  the  common  law,  and 
more  especially  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to  the  now  un 
fashionable  science  of  special  pleading.  He  regarded  this,  not 
only  as  a  most  refined  and  ingenious,  but  a  highly  instructive 
and  useful  branch  of  the  law.  Besides  mastering  all  that 
could  be  derived  from  more  obvious  sources,  he  waded  through 
Saunders's  Reports  in  the  original  edition,  and  abstracted  and 
translated  into  English  from  the  Latin  and  Norman  French 
all  the  pleadings  contained  in  the  two  folio  volumes.  This 
manuscript  still  remains. 

Just  as  he  was  about  to  be  admitted  to  practise  in  the  Suffolk 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  Massachusetts,  an  incident  occurred 
which  came  near  affecting  his  career  for  life.  The  place  of 
clerk  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  county  of  Hillsbor- 
ough,  in  New  Hampshire,  became  vacant.  Of  this  court  Mr. 
Webster's  father  had  been  made  one  of  the  judges,  in  conform 
ity  with  a  very  common  practice  at  that  time,  of  placing  on 
the  side  bench  of  the  lower  courts  men  of  intelligence  and  re 
spectability,  though  not  lawyers.  From  regard  to  Judge  Web 
ster,  the  vacant  clerkship  was  offered  by  his  colleagues  to  his 
son.  It  was  what  the  father  had  for  some  time  looked  forward 
to  and  desired.  The  fees  of  the  office  were  about  fifteen  hun 
dred  dollars  per  annum,  which  in  those  days  and  in  that  region 
was  not  so  much  a  competence  as  a  fortune.  Mr.  Webster 
himself  was  disposed  to  accept  the  office.  It  promised  an  im 
mediate  provision  in  lieu  of  a  distant  and  doubtful  prospect. 
It  enabled  him  at  once  to  bring  comfort  into  his  father's  family, 
while  to  lefuse  it  was  to  condemn  himself  and  them  to  an  un 
certain  arid  probably  harassing  future.  He  was  willing  to  sac- 


xxx         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

rifice  his  hopes  of  professional  eminence  to  the  welfare  of  those 
whom  he  held  most  dear.  But  the  earnest  dissuasions  of  Mr. 
Gore,  who  saw  in  this  step  the  certain  postponement,  perhaps 
the  final  defeat,  of  all  hopes  of  professional  advancement,  pre 
vented  his  accepting  the  office.  His  aged  father  was,  in  a  per 
sonal  interview  with  his  son,  if  not  reconciled  to  the  refusal,  at 
least  induced  to  bury  his  regrets  in  his  own  bosom.  The  sub 
ject  was  never  mentioned  by  him  again.  In  the  spring  of  the 
same  year  (1805),  Mr.  Webster  was  admitted  to  the  practice  of 
the  law  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  Suffolk  county, 
Boston.  According  to  the  custom  of  that  day,  Mr.  Gore  accom 
panied  the  motion  for  his  admission  with  a  brief  speech  in 
recommendation  of  the  candidate.  The  remarks  of  Mr.  Gore 
on  this  occasion  are  well  remembered  by  those  present.  He 
dwelt  with  emphasis  on  the  remarkable  attainments  and  un 
common  promise  of  his  pupil,  and  closed  with  a  prediction  of 
his  future  eminence. 

Immediately  on  his  admission  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Webster  went 
to  Amherst,  in  New  Hampshire,  where  his  father's  court  was 
in  session  ;  from  that  place  he  went  home  with  his  father.  He 
had  intended  to  establish  himself  at  Portsmouth,  which,  as  the 
largest  town  and  the  seat  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  State, 
opened  the  widest  field  for  practice.  But  filial  duty  kept  him 
nearer  home.  His  father  was  now  infirm  from  the  advance  of 
years,  and  had  no  other  son  at  home.  Under  these  circum 
stances  Mr.  Webster  opened  an  office  at  Boscawen,  not  far 
from  his  father's  residence,  and  commenced  the  practice  of 
the  law  in  this  retired  spot.  Judge  Webster  lived  but  a  year 
after  his  son's  entrance  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession; 
long  enough,  however,  to  hear  his  first  argument  in  court, 
and  to  be  gratified  with  the  confident  predictions  of  his  future 
success. 

In  May,  1807,  Mr.  Webster  was  admitted  as  an  attorney  and 
counsellor  of  the  Superior  Court  in  New  Hampshire,  and  in 
September  of  that  year,  relinquishing  his  office  in  Boscawen  to 
his  brother  Ezekiel,  he  removed  to  Portsmouth,  in  conformity 
with  his  original  intention.  Here  he  remained  in  the  practice 
of  his  profession  for  nine  successive  years.  They  were  years  of 
assiduous  labor,  and  of  unremitted  devotion  to  the  study  and 
practice  of  the  law.  He  was  associated  with  several  persons 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         xxxi 

of  great  eminence,  citizens  of  New  Hampshire  or  of  Massachu 
setts  occasionally  practising  at  the  Portsmouth  bar.  Among 
the  latter  were  Samuel  Dexter  and  Joseph  Story ;  of  the  resi 
dents  of  New  Hampshire,  Jeremiah  Mason  was  the  most  distin 
guished.  Often  opposed  to  each  other  as  lawyers,  a  strong 
personal  friendship  grew  up  between  them,  which  ended  only 
with  the  death  of  Mr.  Mason.  Mr.  Webster's  eulogy  on  Mr. 
Mason  will  be  found  in  one  of  the  volumes  of  this  collec 
tion,  and  will  descend  to  posterity  an  enduring  monument  of 
both.  Had  a  more  active  temperament  led  Mr.  Mason  to  em 
bark  earlier  and  continue  longer  in  public  life,  he  would  have 
achieved  a  distinction  shared  by  few  of  his  contemporaries. 
Mr.  Webster,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  was  called  to  perform  the 
same  melancholy  office  for  Judge  Story. 

During  the  greater  part  of  Mr.  Webster's  practice  of  the  law 
in  New  Hampshire,  Jeremiah  Smith  was  Chief  Justice  of  the 
State,  a  learned  and  excellent  judge,  whose  biography  has  been 
written  by  the  Rev.  John  H.  Morison,  and  will  well  repay  pe 
rusal.  Judge  Smith  was  an  early  and  warm  friend  of  Judge 
Webster,  and  this  friendship  descended  to  the  son,  and  glowed 
in  his  breast  with  fervor  till  he  went  to  his  grave. 

Although  dividing  with  Mr.  Mason  the  best  of  the  business 
of  Portsmouth,  and  indeed  of  all  the  eastern  portion  of  the  State, 
Mr.  Webster's  practice  was  mostly  on  the  circuit.  He  followed 
the  Superior  Court  through  the  principal  counties  of  the  State, 
and  was  retained  in  nearly  every  important  cause.  It  is  men 
tioned  by  Mr.  March,  as  a  somewhat  singular  fact  in  his  profes 
sional  life,  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  occasions  on  which  he 
has  been  associated  with  the  Attorney- General  of  the  United 
States  for  the  time  being,  he  has  hardly  appeared  ten  times  as 
junior  counsel.  Within  the  sphere  in  which  he  was  placed, 
he  may  be  said  to  have  risen  at  once  to  the  head  of  his  profes 
sion  ;  not,  however,  like  Erskine  and  some  other  celebrated  Brit 
ish  lawyers,  by  one  and  the  same  bound,  at  once  to  fame  and 
fortune.  The  American  bar  holds  forth  no  such  golden  prizes, 
certainly  not  in  the  smaller  States.  Mr.  Webster's  practice  in 
New  Hampshire,  though  probably  as  good  as  that  of  any  of  his 
contemporaries,  was  never  lucrative.  Clients  were  not  very  rich, 
nor  the  concerns  litigated  such  as  would  carry  heavy  fees.  Al- 


xxxii      BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

though  exclusively  devoted  to  his  profession,  it  afforded  him  no 
more  than  a  bare  livelihood. 

But  the  time  for  which  he  practised  at  the  New  Hampshire  bar 
was  probably  not  lost  with  reference  to  his  future  professional  and 
political  eminence.  His  own  standard  of  legal  attainment  was 
high.  He  was  associated  with  professional  brethren  fully  com 
petent  to  put  his  powers  to  their  best  proof,  and  to  prevent  him 
from  settling  down  in  early  life  into  an  easy  routine  of  ordinary 
professional  practice.  It  was  no  disadvantage,  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  (except  in  reference  to  immediate  pecuniary  bene 
fit,)  to  enjoy  some  portion  of  that  leisure  for  general  reading, 
which  is  almost  wholly  denied  to  the  lawyer  of  commanding 
talents,  who  steps  immediately  into  full  practice  in  a  large  city. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OJr  DANIEL  WEBSTER,    xxxiii 


CHAPTER   II. 

Entrance  on  Public  Life.  —  State  of  Parties  in  1812.  —  Election  to  Congress.  —  Extra 
Session  of  1813.  —  Foreign  Relations  of  the  Country.  —  Resolutions  relative  to  the 
Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees.  —  Naval  Defence.  —  Reflected  to  Congress  in  1814. — 
Peace  with  England.  —  Projects  for  a  National  Bank.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Course  on 
that  Question.  —  Battle  of  New  Orleans.  —  New  Questions  arising  on  the  Return 
of  Peace  —  Course  of  Prominent  Men  of  Different  Parties.  —  Mr.  Webster's 
Opinions  on  the  Constitutionality  of  the  Tariff  Policy.  —  The  Resolution  to  restore 
Specie  Payments  moved  by  Mr.  Webster.  —  Removal  to  Boston. 

MR.  WEBSTER  had  hitherto  taken  less  interest  in  politics  than 
has  been  usual  with  the  young  men  of  talent,  at  least  with  the 
young  lawyers,  of  America.  In  fact,  at  the  time  to  which  the 
preceding  narrative  refers,  the  politics  of  the  country  were  in 
such  a  state,  that  there  was  scarce  any  course  which  could  be 
pursued  with  entire  satisfaction  by  a  patriotic  young  man  sa 
gacious  enough  to  penetrate  behind  mere  party  names,  and  to 
view  public  questions  in  their  true  light.  Party  spirit  ran  high ; 
errors  had  been  committed  by  ardent  men  on  both  sides ;  and 
extreme  opinions  had  been  advanced  on  most  questions,  which 
no  wise  and  well-informed  person  at  the  present  day  would 
probably  be  willing  to  espouse.  The  United  States,  although 
not  actually  drawn  to  any  great  depth  into  the  vortex  of  the 
French  Revolution,  were  powerfully  affected  by  it.  The  deadly 
struggle  of  the  two  great  European  belligerents,  in  which  the 
neutral  rights  of  this  country  were  grossly  violated  by  both, 
gave  a  complexion  to  our  domestic  politics.  A  change  of  ad 
ministration,  mainly  resulting  from  difference  of  opinion  in  re 
spect  to  our  foreign  relations,  had  taken  place  in  1801.  If 
we  may  consider  President  Jefferson's  inaugural  address  as  the 
indication  of  the  principles  on  which  he  intended  to  conduct 
his  administration,  it  was  his  purpose  to  take  a  new  depart 
ure,  and  to  disregard  the  former  party  divisions.  "  We  have," 
said  he,  in  that  eloquent  state  paper,  "  called  by  different  names 
brethren  of  the  same  principle.  We  are  all  republicans,  we 
are  all  federalists." 

At  the  time  these  significant  expressions  were  uttered,  Mr. 
Webster,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  was  just  leaving  college  and 
preparing  to  embark  on  the  voyage  of  life.  A  sentiment  so 


xxxiv     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

liberal  was  not  only  in  accordance  with  the  generous  temper  of 
youth,  but  highly  congenial  with  the  spirit  of  enlarged  patri 
otism  which  has  ever  guided  his  public  course.  There  is  cer 
tainly  no  individual  who  has  filled  a  prominent  place  in  our 
political  history  who  has  shown  himself  more  devoted  to  prin 
ciple  and  less  to  party.  While  no  man  has  clung  with  greater 
tenacity  to  the  friendships  which  spring  from  agreement  in 
political  opinion  (the  idem  sentire  de  republica),  no  man  has 
been  less  disposed  to  find  in  these  associations  an  instrument 
of  monopoly  or  exclusion  in  favor  of  individuals,  interests,  or 
sections  of  the  country. 

But  however  catholic  may  have  been  the  intentions  and 
wishes  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  events  both  at  home  and  abroad  were 
too  strong  for  him,  and  defeated  that  policy  of  blending  the 
great  parties  into  one,  which  has  always  been  a  favorite,  perhaps 
we  must  add,  a  visionary  project,  with  statesmen  of  elevated 
and  generous  characters.  The  aggressions  of  the  belligerents 
on  our  neutral  commerce  still  continued,  and,  by  the  joint  effect 
of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees  and  the  Orders  in  Council,  it 
was  all  but  swept  from  the  ocean.  In  this  state  of  things  two 
courses  were  open  to  the  United  States,  as  a  growing  neutral 
power :  one,  that  of  prompt  resistance  to  the  aggressive  policy 
of  the  belligerents ;  the  other,  that  which  was  called  "  the  re 
strictive  system,"  which  consisted  in  an  embargo  on  our  own 
vessels,  with  a  view  to  withdraw  them  from  the  grasp  of  for 
eign  cruisers,  and  in  laws  inhibiting  commercial  intercourse 
with  England  and  France.  There  was  a  division  of  opinion  in 
the  cabinet  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  in  the  country  at  large.  The 
latter  policy  was  finally  adopted.  It  fell  in  with  the  general 
views  of  Mr.  Jefferson  against  committing  the  country  to  the 
risks  of  foreign  war.  His  administration  was  also  strongly 
pledged  to  retrenchment  and  economy,  in  the  pursuit  of  which 
a  portion  of  our  little  navy  had  been  brought  to  the  hammer, 
and  a  species  of  shore  defence  substituted,  which  can  now  be 
thought  of  only  with  mortification  and  astonishment. 

Although  the  discipline  of  party  was  sufficiently  strong  to 
cause  this  system  of  measures  to  be  adopted  and  pursued  for 
years,  it  was  never  cordially  approved  by  the  people  of  the 
United  States  of  any  party.  Leading  Republicans  both  at  the 
South  and  at  the  North  denounced  it.  With  Mr.  Jefferson's 


iJiUUKAFHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.       xxxv 

retirement  from  office  it  fell  rapidly  into  disrepute.  It  con 
tinued,  however,  to  form  the  basis  of  our  party  divisions  till  the 
war  of  1812.  In  these  divisions,  as  has  been  intimated,  both 
parties  were  in  a  false  position  ;  the  one  supporting  and  forcing 
upon  the  country  a  system  of  measures  not  cordially  approved, 
even  by  themselves ;  the  other,  a  powerless  minority,  zealously 
opposing  those  measures,  but  liable  for  that  reason  to  be 
thought  backward  in  asserting  the  neutral  rights  of  the  country. 
A  few  men  of  well-balanced  minds,  true  patriotism,  and  sound 
statesmanship,  in  all  sections  of  the  country,  were  able  to  unite 
fidelity  to  their  party  associations  with  a  comprehensive  view 
to  the  good  of  the  country.  Among  these,  mature  beyond  his 
years,  was  Mr.  Webster.  As  early  as  1806  he  had,  in  a  public 
oration,  presented  an  impartial  view  of  the  foreign  relations  of 
the  country  in  reference  to  both  belligerents,  of  the  importance 
of  our  commercial  interests  and  the  duty  of  protecting  them. 
"  Nothing  is  plainer,"  said  he,  "  than  this :  if  we  will  have 
commerce,  we  must  protect  it.  This  country  is  commercial  as 
well  as  agricultural.  Indissoluble  bonds  connect  him  who 
ploughs  the  land  with  him  who  ploughs  the  sea.  Nature  has 
placed  us  in  a  situation  favorable  to  commercial  pursuits,  and 
no  government  can  alter  the  destination.  Habits  confirmed  by 
two  centuries  are  not  to  be  changed.  An  immense  portion  of 
our  property  is  on  the  waves.  Sixty  or  eighty  thousand  of  our 
most  useful  citizens  are  there,  and  are  entitled  to  such  protec 
tion  from  the  government  as  their  case  requires." 

At  length  the  foreign  belligerents  themselves  perceived  the 
folly  and  injustice  of  their  measures.  In  the  strife  which 
should  inflict  the  greatest  injury  on  the  other,  they  had  para 
lyzed  the  commerce  of  the  world  and  embittered  the  minds 
of  all  the  neutral  powers.  The  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees  were 
revoked,  but  in  a  manner  so  unsatisfactory  as  in  a  great  de 
gree  to  impair  the  pacific  tendency  of  the  measure.  The 
Orders  in  Council  were  also  rescinded  in  the  summer  of  1812. 
War,  however,  justly  provoked  by  each  and  both  of  the  parties, 
had  meantime  been  declared  by  Congress  against  England, 
and  active  hostilities  had  been  commenced  on  the  frontier.  At 
the  elections  next  ensuing,  Mr.  Webster  was  brought  forward 
as  a  candidate  for  Congress  of  the  Federal  party  of  that  day, 
and,  having  been  chosen  in  the  month  of  November,  1812,  he 


xxxvi     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

took  his  seat  at  the  first  session  of  the  Thirteenth  Congress, 
which  was  an  extra  session  called  in  May,  1813.  Although  his 
course  of  life  hitherto  had  been  in  what  may  be  called  a  provin 
cial  sphere,  and  he  had  never  been  a  member  even  of  the  legis 
lature  of  his  native  State,  a  presentiment  of  his  ability  seems 
to  have  gone  before  him  to  Washington.  He  was,  in  the  or 
ganization  of  the  House,  placed  by  Mr.  Clay,  its  Speaker,  upon 
the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs,  a  select  committee  at  that 
time,  and  of  necessity  the  leading  committee  in  a  state  of  war. 

There  were  many  men  of  uncommon  ability  in  the  Thirteenth 
Congress.  Rarely  has  so  much  talent  been  found  at  any  one 
time  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  contained  Clay,  Cal- 
houn,  Lowndes,  Pickering,  Gaston,  Forsyth,  in  the  front  rank ; 
Macon,  Benson,  J.  W.  Taylor,  Oakley,  Grundy,  Grosvenor,  W. 
R.  King,  Kent  of  Maryland,  C.  J.  Ingersoll  of  Pennsylvania,  Pit- 
kin  of  Connecticut,  and  others  of  scarcely  inferior  note.  Al 
though  among  the  youngest  and  least. experienced  members  of 
the  body,  Mr.  Webster  rose,  from  the  first,  to  a  position  of  un 
disputed  equality  with  the  most  distinguished.  The  times  were 
critical.  The  immediate  business  to  be  attended  to  was  the 
financial  and  military  conduct  of  the  war,  a  subject  of  difficulty 
and  importance.  The  position  of  Mr.  Webster  was  not  such  as 
to  require  or  permit  him  to  take  a  lead ;  but  it  was  his  steady 
aim,  without  the  sacrifice  of  his  principles,  to  pursue  such  a 
course  as  would  tend  most  effectually  to  extricate  the  country 
from  the  embarrassments  of  her  present  position,  and  to  lead  to 
peace  upon  honorable  terms. 

As  the  repeal  of  the  Orders  in  Council  was  nearly  simulta 
neous  with  the  declaration  of  war,  the  delay  of  a  few  weeks 
might  have  led  to  an  amicable  adjustment.  Whatever  regret 
on  the  score  of  humanity  this  circumstance  may  now  inspire, 
the  war  must  be  looked  upon,  in  reviewing  the  past,  as  a  great 
chapter  in  the  progress  of  the  country,  which  could  not  be 
passed  over.  When  we  reflect  on  the  influence  of  the  conflict,  in 
its  general  results,  upon  the  national  character;  its  importance  as 
a  demonstration  to  the  belligerent  powers  of  the  world  that  the 
rights  of  neutrals  must  be  respected ;  and  more  especially,  when 
we  consider  the  position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  which 
the  United  States  have  been  enabled  to  take,  in  consequence 
of  the  capacity  for  naval  achievement  which  the  war  displayed, 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,    xxxvii 

we  shall  readily  acknowledge  it  to  be  a  part  of  that  great  train 
ing,  by  which  the  country  was  prepared  to  take  the  station  which 
she  now  occupies. 

Mr.  Webster  was  not  a  member  of  Congress  when  war  was 
declared,  nor  in  any  other  public  station.  He  was  too  deeply 
read  in  the  law  of  nations,  and  regarded  that  august  code  writh 
too  much  respect,  not  to  contemplate  with  indignation  its  in 
fraction  by  both  the  belligerents.  With  respect  to  the  Orders  in 
Council,  the  highest  judicial  magistrate  in  England  (Lord  Chief 
Justice  Campbell)  has  lately  admitted  that  they  were  contrary 
to  the  law  of  nations.*  As  little  doubt  can  exist  that  the  French 
decrees  were  equally  at  variance  with  the  public  law.  But 
however  strong  his  convictions  of  this  truth,  Mr.  Webster's 
sagacity  and  practical  sense  pointed  out  the  inadequacy,  and 
what  may  be  called  the  political  irrelevancy,  of  the  restrictive 
system,  as  a  measure  of  defence  or  retaliation.  He  could  not 
but  feel  that  it  was  a  policy  which  tended  at  once  to  cripple 
the  national  resources,  and  abase  the  public  sentiment,  with  an 
effect  upon  the  foreign  powers  doubtful  and  at  best  indirect.  In 
the  state  of  the  military  resources  of  the  country  at  that  time, 
he  discerned,  in  common  with  many  independent  men  of  all 
parties,  that  less  was  to  be  hoped  from  the  attempted  conquest 
of  foreign  territory,  than  from  a  gallant  assault  upon  the  fancied 
supremacy  of  the  enemy  at  sea.  It  is  unnecessary  to  state,  that 
the  whole  course  of  the  war  confirmed  the  justice  of  these  views. 
They  furnish  the  key  to  Mr.  Webster's  course  in  the  Thirteenth 
Congress. 

Early  in  the  session,  he  moved  a  series  of  resolutions  of  in 
quiry,  relative  to  the  repeal  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees. 
The  object  of  these  resolutions  was  to  elicit  a  communication 
on  this  subject  from  the  executive,  which  would  unfold  the  prox 
imate  causes  of  the  war,  as  far  as  they  were  to  be  sought  in 
those  famous  Decrees,  and  in  the  Orders  in  Council.  On  the 
10th  of  June,  1813,  Mr.  Webster  delivered  his  maiden  speech  on 
these  resolutions.  No  full  report  of  this  speech  has  been  pre 
served.  It  is  known  only  from  extremely  imperfect  sketches, 
contained  in  the  contemporaneous  newspaper  accounts  of  the 
proceedings  of  Congress,  from  the  recollection  of  those  who  heard 

*  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  Vol.  VII.  p.  218;  see  also  p.  301. 
VOL.    I.  d 


xxxviii       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

it,  and  from  general  tradition.  It  was  a  cairn  and  statesmanlike 
exposition  of  the  objects  of  the  resolutions ;  and  was  listened  to 
with  profound  attention  by  the  House.  It  was  marked  by  all 
the  characteristics  of  Mr.  Webster's  maturest  parliamentary 
efforts,  —  moderation  of  tone,  precision  of  statement,  force  of  rea 
soning,  absence  of  ambitious  rhetoric  and  high-flown  language, 
occasional  bursts  of  true  eloquence,  and,  pervading  the  whole,  a 
genuine  and  fervid  patriotism.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that 
its  effect  upon  the  House  is  accurately  described  in  the  follow 
ing  extract  from  Mr.  March's  work. 

"The  speech  took  the  House  by  surprise,  not  so  much  from  its  elo 
quence  as  from  the  vast  amount  of  historical  knowledge  and  illustrative 
ability  displayed  in  it.  How  a  person,  untrained  to  forensic  contests  and 
unused  to  public  affairs,  could  exhibit  so  much  parliamentary  tact,  such 
nice  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  of  a  difficult  question,  and  such  quiet 
facility  in  surmounting  them,  puzzled  the  mind.  The  age  and  inexperi 
ence  of  the  speaker  had  prepared  the  House  for  no  such  display,  and 
astonishment  for  a  time  subdued  the  expression  of  its  admiration. 

" ;  No  member  before,'  says  a  person  then  in  the  House, '  ever  riveted 
the  attention  of  the  House  so  closely,  in  his  first  speech.  Members 
left  their  seats,  where  they  could  not  see  the  speaker  face  to  face,  and 
sat  down,  or  stood  on  the  floor,  fronting  him.  All  listened  attentively 
and  silently,  during  the  whole  speech ;  and  when  it  was  over,  many 
went  up  and  warmly  congratulated  the  orator;  among  whom  were  some, 
not  the  most  niggard  of  their  compliments,  who  most  dissented  from  the 
views  he  had  expressed.' 

"Chief  Justice  Marshall,  writing  to  a  friend  some  time  after  this 
speech,  says:  'At  the  time  when  this  speech  was  delivered,  I  did  not 
know  Mr.  Webster,  but  I  was  so  much  struck  with  it,  that  I  did  not  hes 
itate  then  to  state,  that  Mr.  Webster  was  a  very  able  man,  and  would 
become  one  of  the  very  first  statesmen  in  America,  and  perhaps  the 
very  first.'"  —  pp.  35,  36.* 

The  resolutions  moved  by  Mr.  Webster  prevailed  by  a  large 
majority,  and  drew  forth  from  Mr.  Monroe,  then  Secretary  of 
State,  an  elaborate  and  instructive  report  upon  the  subject  to 
which  they  referred. 

*  The  friend  to  whom  the  letter  referred  to  by  Mr.  March  was  written,  was 
Mr.  Justice  Story,  who  adds  :  "  Such  praise  from  such  a  man  ought  to  be 
very  gratifying.  Consider  that  he  is  now  seventy-five  years  old,  and  that  he 
speaks  of  his  recollections  of  some  eighteen  years  ago  with  a  freshness  which 
shows  how  deeply  your  reasoning  impressed  itself  upon  his  mind.  Keep  this  in 
memoriam  ra." 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     xxxix 

We  have  already  observed,  that,  as  early  as  1806,  Mr.  Web 
ster  had  expressed  himself  in  favor  of  the  protection  of  our 
commerce  against  the  aggressions  of  both  the  belligerents. 
Some  years  later,  before  the  war  was  declared,  but  when  it  was 
visibly  impending,  he  had  put  forth  some  vigorous  articles  to 
the  same  effect.  In  an  oration  delivered  in  1812,  he  had  said: 
"A  navy  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  our  coasts  and  harbors, 
for  the  convoy  of  important  branches  of  our  trade,  and  sufficient 
also  to  give  our  enemies  to  understand,  when  they  injure  us, 
that  they  too  are  vulnerable,  and  that  we  have  the  power  of 
retaliation  as  well  as  of  defence,  seerns  to  be  the  plain,  neces 
sary,  indispensable  policy  of  the  nation.  It  is  the  dictate  of 
nature  and  common  sense,  that  means  of  defence  shall  have 
relation  to  the  danger."  In  accordance  with  these  views,  first 
announced  by  Mr.  Webster  a  considerable  time  before  Hull, 
Decatur,  and  Bainbridge  had  broken  the  spell  of  British  naval 
supremacy,  he  used  the  following  language  in  his  speech  on  en 
couraging  enlistments  in  1814:  — 

"  The  humble  aid  which  it  would  be  in  my  power  to  render  to  meas 
ures  of  government  shall  be  given  cheerfully,  if  government  will  pur 
sue  measures  which  I  can  conscientiously  support.  If  even  now,  failing 
in  an  honest  and  sincere  attempt  to  procure  an  honorable  peace,  it  will 
return  to  measures  of  defence  and  protection,  such  as  reason  and  com 
mon  sense  and  the  public  opinion  all  call  for,  my  vote  shall  not  be 
withholden  from  the  means.  Give  up  your  futile  projects  of  invasion. 
Extinguish  the  fires  which  blaze  on  your  inland  frontiers.  Establish 
perfect  safety  and  defence  there  by  adequate  force.  Let  every  man 
that  sleeps  on  your  soil  sleep  in  security.  Stop  the  blood  that  flows 
from  the  veins  of  unarmed  yeomanry,  and  women  and  children.  Give 
to  the  living  time  to  bury  and  lament  their  dead,  in  the  quietness  of 
private  sorrow.  Having  performed  this  work  of  beneficence  and  mercy 
on  your  inland  border,  turn  and  look  with  the  eye  of  justice  and  com 
passion  on  your  vast  population  along  the  coast.  Unclench  the  iron 
grasp  of  your  embargo.  Take  measures  for  that  end  before  another 
sun  sets  upon  you.  With  all  the  war  of  the  enemy  on  your  commerce, 
if  you  would  cease  to  make  war  upon  it  yourselves,  you  would  still 
have  some  commerce.  That  commerce  would  give  you  some  revenue. 
Apply  that  revenue  to  the  augmentation  of  your  navy.  That  navy  in 
turn  will  protect  your  commerce.  Let  it  no  longer  be  said,  that  not  one 
ship  of  force,  built  by  your  hands  since  the  war,  yet  floats  upon  the 
ocean.  Turn  the  current  of  your  efforts  into  the  channel  which  national 


k]  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

sentiment  has  already  worn  broad  and  deep  to  receive  it.  A  naval  force 
competent  to  defend  your  coasts  against  considerable  armaments,  to  con 
voy  your  trade,  and  perhaps  raise  the  blockade  of  your  rivers,  is  not  a 
chimera.  It  may  be  realized.  If  then  the  war  must  continue,  go  to  the 
ocean.  If  you  are  seriously  contending  for  maritime  rights,  go  to  the 
theatre  where  alone  those  rights  can  be  defended.  Thither  every  indi 
cation  of  your  fortune  points  you.  There  the  united  wishes  and  exer 
tions  of  the  nation  will  go  with  you.  Even  our  party  divisions,  acri 
monious  as  they  are,  cease  at  the  water's  edge.  They  are  lost  in 
attachment  to  the  national  character,  on  the  element  where  that  char 
acter  is  made  respectable.  In  protecting  naval  interests  by  naval  means, 
you  will  arm  yourselves  with  the  whole  power  of  national  sentiment, 
and  may  command  the  whole  abundance  of  the  national  resources.  In 
time  you  may  be  able  to  redress  injuries  in  the  place  where  they  may 
be  offered ;  and,  if  need  be,  to  accompany  your  own  flag  throughout 
the  world  with  the  protection  of  your  own  cannon." 

The  principal  subjects  on  which  Mr.  Webster  addressed  the 
House  during  the  Thirteenth  Congress  were  his  own  resolutions, 
the  increase  of  the  navy,  the  repeal  of  the  embargo,  and  an  ap 
peal  from  the  decision  of  the  chair  on  a  motion  for  the  previous 
question.  His  speeches  on  those  questions  raised  him  to  the 
front  rank  of  debaters.  He  manifested  upon  his  entrance  into 
public  life  that  variety  of  knowledge,  familiarity  with  the  his 
tory  and  traditions  of  the  government,  and  self-possession  on 
the  floor,  which  in  most  cases  are  acquired  by  time  and  long 
experience.  They  gained  for  him  the  reputation  indicated  by 
the  well-known  remark  of  Mr.  Lowndes,  that  "  the  North  had 
not  his  equal,  nor  the  South  his  superior."  It  was  not  the 
least  conspicuous  of  the  strongly  marked  qualities  of  his  char 
acter  as  a  public  man,  disclosed  at  this  early  period,  and  uni 
formly  preserved  throughout  his  career,  that,  at  a  time  when 
party  spirit  went  to  great  lengths,  he  never  permitted  himself  to 
be  infected  with  its  contagion.  His  opinions  were  firmly  main 
tained  and  boldly  expressed ;  but  without  bitterness  toward 
those  who  differed  from  him.  He  cultivated  friendly  relations 
?n  both  sides  of  the  House,  arid  gained  the  personal  respect  even 
of  those  with  whom  he  most  differed. 

In  August,  1814,  Mr.  Webster  was  reflected  to  Congress. 
The  treaty  of  Ghent,  as  is  well  known,  was  signed  in  Decem 
ber,  1814,  and  the  prospect  of  peace,  universally  welcomed  by 
the  country,  opened  on  the  Thirteenth  Congress  toward  the  close 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          xli 

of  its  third  session.  Earlier  in  the  season  a  project  for  a  Bank 
of  the  United  States  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  on  the  recommendation  of  Mr.  Dallas,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  The  charter  of  the  first  incorporated  bank  of  the 
United  States  had  expired  in  1811.  No  general  complaints  of 
mismanagement  or  abuse  had  been  raised  against  this  institu 
tion  ;  but  the  opinions  entertained  by  what  has  been  called  the 
"Virginia  School"  of  politicians,  against  the  constitutionality 
of  a  national  bank,  prevented  the  renewal  of  the  charter.  The 
want  of  such  an  institution  was  severely  felt  in  the  war  of  1812, 
although  it  is  probable  that  the  amount  of  assistance  which  it 
could  have  afforded  the  financial  operations  of  the  government 
was  greatly  overrated.  Be  this  as  it  may,  both  the  Treasury  De 
partment  and  Congress  were  now  strongly  disposed  to  create  a 
bank.  Its  capital  was  to  consist  of  forty-five  millions  of  the 
public  stocks  and  five  millions  of  specie,  and  it  was  to  be  under 
obligation  to  lend  the  government  thirty  millions  of  dollars  on 
demand.  To  enable  it  to  exist  under  these  conditions,  it  was 
relieved  from  the  necessity  of  redeeming  its  notes  in  specie.  In 
other  words,  it  was  an  arrangement  for  the  issue  of  an  irredeem 
able  paper  currency.  It  was  opposed  mainly  on  this  ground  by 
Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Lowndes,  and  others  of  the 
ablest  men  on  both  sides  of  the  House,  as  a  project  not  only 
unsound  in  its  principles,  but  sure  to  increase  the  derangement 
of  the  currency  already  existing.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Webster 
against  the  bill  will  be  found  in  one  of  these  volumes,  and  it 
will  be  generally  admitted  to  display  a  mastery  of  the  some 
what  difficult  subjects  of  banking  and  finance,  rarely  to  be 
found  in  the  debates  in  Congress.  The  project  was  supported 
as  an  administration  measure,  but  the  leading  members  from 
South  Carolina  and  their  friends  united  with  the  regular  oppo 
sition  against  it,  and  it  was  lost  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
Speaker,  Mr.  Cheves.  It  was  revived  by  reconsideration,  on 
motion  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  such  amendments  introduced  that 
it  passed  the  House  by  a  large  majority.  It  was  carried  through 
the  Senate  in  this  amended  form  with  difficulty,  but  it  was 
negatived  by  Mr.  Madison,  being  one  of  the  two  cases  in 
which  he  exercised  the  veto  power  during  his  eight  years'  ad 
ministration. 

On  the   8th    of  January   of  the  year   1815,  the  victory  at 


x.ii        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

New  Orleans  was  gained  by  General  Jackson.  No  occurrence 
on  land,  in  the  course  of  the  war,  was  of  equal  immediate  in 
terest,  or  destined  to  have  so  abiding  an  influence  on  the  fu 
ture.  Besides  averting  the  indescribable  calamity  of  the  sack 
of  a  populous  and  flourishing  city,  it  showed  the  immense  mili 
tary  power  of  the  volunteer  force  of  the  country,  when  com 
manded  with  energy  and  skill.  The  praises  of  General  Jack 
son  were  on  every  tongue  throughout  the  land,  and  Congress 
responded  to  the  grateful  feelings  of  the  country.  A  vote  of 
thanks  was  unanimously  passed  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives. 

In  the  interval  between  the  Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth  Con 
gresses  (March —  December,  1815),  Mr.  Webster  was  busily 
engaged  at  home  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  He  had  begun  at 
this  time  to  consider  the  expediency  of  removing  his  residence 
to  a  wider  professional  field.  Though  receiving  a  full  share  of 
the  best  business  of  New  Hampshire,  it  ceased  to  yield  an  ade 
quate  support  for  his  increasing  family,  and  still  more  failed  to 
afford  any  thing  like  the  just  reward  of  his  legal  attainment  and 
labors.  The  destruction  of  his  house,  furniture,  library,  and 
many  important  manuscript  collections,  in  "  the  great  fire "  at 
Portsmouth,  in  December,  1813,  had  entailed  upon  him  the 
loss  of  the  entire  fruits  of  his  professional  industry  up  to  that 
time,  and  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  look  around  him  for  the 
means  of  a  considerably  increased  income.  He  hesitated  be 
tween  Albany  and  Boston ;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  inde 
cision,  the  execution  of  his  purpose  was  for  the  present  post 
poned. 

The  Fourteenth  Congress  assembled  in  December,  1815.  An 
order  of  things  in  a  great  degree  new  presented  itself.  After  a 
momentary  pause,  the  country  rose  with  an  elastic  bound  from 
the  pressure  of  the  war.  Old  party  dissensions  had  lost  much 
of  their  interest.  The  condition  of  Europe  had  undergone  a 
great  change.  The  power  of  the  French  emperor  was  anni 
hilated  ;  and  with  the  return  of  general  peace,  all  occasions  for 
belligerent  encroachments  on  neutral  rights  had  ceased.  Two 
thirds  of  our  domestic  feuds  had  turned  on  foreign  questions, 
and  there  was  a  spontaneous  feeling  throughout  the  country  in 
favor  of  healing  the  wounds  which  these  feuds  had  inflicted 
upon  its  social  and  political  harmony.  Nor  was  this  all.  New 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         xliii 

relations  and  interests  had  arisen.  The  public  debt  had  been 
swelled  by  the  war  expenditure  to  a  large  amount,  and  its  in 
terest  was  to  be  paid.  Domestic  manufactures  had,  in  some 
of  the  States,  grown  up  into  importance  through  the  operation 
of  the  restrictive  system  and  the  war,  and  asked  for  protection. 
The  West  began  to  fill  up  with  unexampled  rapidity,  and  re 
quired  new  facilities  of  communication  with  the  Atlantic  coast. 
The  navy  had  fought  itself  into  favor,  and  the  war  with  Algiers, 
in  1816,  forbade  its  reduction  below  the  recent  war  establish 
ment.  The  necessity  of  a  system  of  coast  defences  had  made 
itself  felt.  With  all  these  loud  calls  for  increased  expenditure, 
the  public  finances  were  embarrassed  and  the  currency  was  in 
extreme  disorder.  In  a  word,  there  were  new  and  great  wants 
and  interests  at  home  and  abroad,  throwing  former  topics  of 
dissension  into  the  shade,  and  calling  for  the  highest  efforts  of 
statesmanship  and  a  patriotism  embracing  the  whole  country. 

Among  those  who  responded  with  the  greatest  cordiality  and 
promptness  to  the  new  demand  were  the  distinguished  states 
men  of  the  preceding  Congress,  and  conspicuous  among  them 
Clay,  Calhoun,  Webster,  Lowndes,  and  Cheves.  It  will  excite 
some  surprise  at  the  present  day,  in  consideration  of  the  politi 
cal  history  of  the  last  thirty  years,  to  find  how  little  difference 
as  to  leading  measures  existed  in  1816  between  these  distin 
guished  statesmen.  No  line  of  general  party  difference  separat 
ed  the  members  of  the  first  Congress  after  the  peace.  The  great 
measures  brought  forward  were  a  national  bank,  internal  im 
provement,  and  a  protective  tariff.  On  these  various  subjects 
members  divided,  not  in  accordance  with  any  party  organiza 
tion,  but  from  individual  convictions,  supposed  sectional  inter 
ests,  and  general  public  grounds.  On  the  two  first-named  sub 
jects  no  systematic  difference  of  views  disclosed  itself  between 
the  great  Northern  and  Southern  leaders ;  on  the  third  alone 
there  was  diversity  of  opinion.  In  the  Northern  States  consid 
erable  advances  had  been  made  in  manufacturing  industry,  in 
different  places,  especially  at  Waltham  (Mass.) ;  but  a  great 
manufacturing  interest  had  not  yet  grown  up.  The  strength  of 
this  interest  as  yet  lay  mainly  in  Pennsylvania.  Navigation  and 
foreign  trade  were  the  leading  pursuits  of  the  North  ;  and  these 
interests,  it  was  feared,  would  suffer  from  the  attempt  to  build 
up  manufactures  by  a  protective  tariff.  It  is  accordingly  a 


xliv         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

well-known  fact,  which  may  teach  all  to  entertain  opinions 
on  public  questions  with  some  distrust  of  their  own  judgment, 
that  the  tariff  of  1816,  containing  the  minimum  duty  on  coarse 
cotton  fabrics,  the  corner-stone  of  the  protective  system,  was 
supported  by  Mr.  Calhoun  and  a  few  other  Southern  members, 
and  carried  by  their  influence  against  the  opposition  of  the 
New  England  members  generally,  including  Mr.  Webster.  It 
has  been  stated,  that,  during  the  pendency  of  this  law  before 
Congress,  he  denied  the  constitutionality  of  a  tariff  for  protec 
tion.  This  statement  is  inaccurate ;  although,  had  it  been  true, 
it  would  have  placed  him  only  in  the  same  relation  to  the  ques 
tion  with  Mr.  Calhoun  and  other  Southern  members,  who  at 
that  time  admitted  the  principle  of  protection,  but  lived  to  reject 
it  as  the  grossest  and  most  pernicious  constitutional  heresy.  It 
would  have  shown  only  that,  in  a  long  political  career,  he  had, 
on  the  first  discussion  of  a  new  question,  expressed  an  opinion 
which,  in  the  lapse  of  time  and  under  a  change  of  circum 
stances,  he  had  seen  occasion  to  alter.  This  is  no  ground  of 
just  reproach.  It  has  happened  to  every  public  man  in  every 
free  country,  who  has  been  of  importance  enough  to  have  his 
early  opinions  remembered.  It  has  happened  to  a  large  por 
tion  of  the  prominent  men  at  the  South,  in  reference  to  almost 
every  great  question  agitated  within  the  last  generation.  The 
bank,  internal  improvements,  a  navy,  the  Colonization  Society, 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  power  of  Congress  over  the  terri 
tories,  this  very  question  of  the  tariff,  the  doctrine  of  State 
rights  generally,  are  subjects  on  which  many  prominent  states 
men  of  the  South,  living  or  recently  deceased,  have  in  the 
course  of  their  career  entertained  opposite  views. 

But  it  is  not  true  that  Mr.  Webster  in  1816  denied  the  con 
stitution  ah' ty  of  a  tariff  for  protection.  .In  1820,  in  discussing 
the  subject  in  Faneuil  Hall,  he  argued  that,  if  the  right  of  lay 
ing  duties  for  protection  were  derived  from  the  revenue  power, 
it  was  of  necessity  incidental ;  and  on  that  assumption,  as  the 
incident  cannot  go  beyond  that  to  which  it  is  incidental,  duties 
avowedly  for  protection,  and  not  having  any  reference  to  reve 
nue,  could  not  be  constitutionally  laid.  The  hypothetical  form 
of  the  statement  shows  a  degree  of  indecision ;  while  the  prop 
osition  itself  is  not  to  be  gainsaid.  At  a  later  period,  and  after 
it  had  been  confidently  stated,  and  satisfactorily  shown  by  Mr. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          xlv 

Madison,  that  the  Federal  Convention  intended,  under  the 
provision  for  regulating  commerce,  to  clothe  Congress  with  the 
power  of  laying  duties  for  the  protection  of  manufactures ;  and 
after  Congress  had,  by  repeated  laws,  passed  against  the  wishes 
of  the  navigating  and  strictly  commercial  interests,  practically 
settled  this  constitutional  question,  and  turned  a  vast  amount  of 
the  capital  of  the  country  into  the  channel  of  manufactures ;  Mr. 
Webster  considered  a  moderate  degree  of  protection  (such  as 
would  keep  the  home  market  steady  under  the  occasional  gluts 
in  the  foreign  market,  and  shield  the  domestic  manufacturer 
from  the  wholesale  frauds  of  foreign  importation)  as  the  estab 
lished  policy  of  the  United  States;  and  he  accordingly  sup 
ported  it.  It  is  unnecessary  to  state,  that  this  course  has  been 
pursued  with  the  approbation  of  his  constituents,  and  to  the 
manifest  good  of  the  country.  No  change  has  taken  place  in 
Mr.  Webster's  opinions  on  the  subject  of  protection  which  has 
not  been  generally  shared  and  sanctioned  by  the  intelligence 
of  the  manufacturing  States.  There  are  strong  indications, 
even,  that  in  the  Southern  States  the  superiority  of  the  home 
market  over  the  foreign  is  beginning  to  be  felt. 

Mr.  Webster  took  an  active  and  efficient  part,  at  the  first 
session  of  the  Fourteenth  Congress,  in  the  debates  on  the  char- 

O  ' 

ter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  which  passed  Congress 
in  April,  1816.  While  the  bill  was  before  the  House,  he  moved 
and  carried  several  amendments  similar  to  those  which  he  had 
caused  to  be  introduced  into  the  bill  of  the  former  year.  He 
exerted  himself  in  vain,  however,  against  the  participation  of 
the  government  in  its  management,  and,  in  common  with 
several  independent  members  usually  supporting  the  adminis 
tration,  he  voted  against  it  on  its  passage.  Among  the  amend 
ments  to  the  bill,  of  which  Mr.  Webster  procured  the  adoption, 
was  one  which  required  deposits,  as  well  as  the  notes  of  the 
bank,  to  be  paid  on  demand  in  specie. 

But  the  great  service  rendered  by  Mr.  Webster  to  the  cur 
rency  of  the  country  in  the  Fourteenth  Congress  was  in  pro 
curing  the  adoption  of  the  specie  resolution,  in  virtue  of  which, 
from  and  after  the  20th  of  February,  1817,  all  debts  due  to  the 
treasury  were  required  to  be  paid  in  the  legal  currency  of  the 
country  (gold  or  silver),  in  treasury  notes,  or  the  notes  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States,  or  in  notes  of  banks  which  are  pay- 


xlvi         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

able  and  paid  on  demand  in  the  same  legal  currency.  This  ser 
vice  can  hardly  be  appreciated  at  the  present  day  by  those 
too  young  to  recollect  the  state  of  things  existing  in  this  respect 
during  the  war  and  after  its  close.  This  resolution  passed  the 
two  houses,  and  was  approved  by  the  President  on  the  30th  of 
April,  1816.  It  completely  accomplished  its  object;  and  that 
object  was  to  restore  to  a  sound  basis  the  currency  of  the  coun 
try,  and  to  give  the  people  a  uniform  circulating  medium.  Of 
this  they  were  destitute  at  the  close  of  the  war.  All  the  banks, 
except  those  of  the  New  England  States,  had  suspended  specie 
payments ;  but  their  depreciated  bills  were  permitted  by  gen 
eral  consent,  and  within  certain  limits,  to  circulate  as  money. 
They  were  received  of  each  other  by  the  different  banks ;  they 
passed  from  hand  to  hand ;  and  even  the  public  revenue  was 
collected  at  par  in  this  degraded  paper.  The  rate  of  deprecia 
tion  was  different  in  different  States,  and  with  different  bank? 
in  the  same  States,  according  as  greater  or  less  advantage  had 
been  taken  of  the  suspension  of  the  specie  obligation. 

What  was  not  less  harassing  than  this  diversity  was  the  un 
certainty  everywhere  prevailing,  how  far  the  reputed  rate  of  de 
preciation  in  any  particular  case  might  represent  justly  the  real 
condition  of  a  bank  or  set  of  banks.  In  other  words,  men  were 
obliged  to  make  and  receive  payments  in  a  currency  of  which, 
at  the  time,  the  value  was  not  certainly  known  to  them,  and 
which  might  vary  as  it  was  passing  through  their  hands.  The 
enormous  injustice  suffered  by  the  citizens  of  different  States, 
in  being  obliged  to  pay  their  dues  at  the  custom-houses  in  as 
many  different  currencies  as  there  were  States,  varying  at  least 
twenty-five  per  cent,  between  Boston  and  Richmond,  need 
not  be  pointed  out.  For  all  these  mischiefs  the  resolution 
of  Mr.  Webster  afforded  a  remedy  as  efficient  as  simple ;  and 
what  chiefly  moves  our  astonishment  at  the  present  day  is, 
that  a  measure  of  this  kind,  demanded  by  the  first  principles  of 
finance,  overlooked  by  the  executive  and  its  leading  friends  in 
Congress,  should  be  left  to  be  brought  forward  by  one  of  its 
youngest  members,  and  he  not  belonging  to  the  supporters  of  the 
administration.  But  commanding  talent  and  profound  knowl 
edge  of  the  subjects  to  be  treated  vindicate  to  themselves  a  po 
sition  in  public  bodies,  which  official  relations  can  neither  con 
fer  nor  take  away  It  would  not  be  easy  to  name  a  political 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        xlvii 

measure,  in  the  history  of  the  government,  which  has  accom 
plished  its  design  with  greater  simplicity  and  directness ;  and 
that  design  one  of  paramount  importance  to  the  country,  and 
coming  home  to  the  business  of  every  individual. 

In  all  the  other  public  measures  brought  forward  in  this 
Congress  for  meeting  the  new  conditions  of  the  country,  Mr. 
Webster  bore  an  active  part,  but  they  furnish  no  topic  requiring 
illustration.  At  the  close  of  the  first  session,  in  August,  1816, 
he  executed  the  project  to  which  we  have  already  alluded  of  re 
moving  to  a  wider  professional  field.  After  some  hesitation  he 
decided  on  Boston,  in  which  and  its  vicinity  he  has  ever  since 
made  his  home.  He  had  established  friendly  relations  here  at 
an  early  period  of  life.  In  no  part  of  the  Union  was  his  na 
tional  reputation  more  cordially  recognized  than  in  the  metrop 
olis  of  New  England.  He  took  at  once  the  place  in  his  profes 
sion  which  belonged  to  his  commanding  talent  and  legal  emi 
nence,  and  was  welcomed  into  every  circle  of  social  life. 


xlviii      BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Professional  Character  particularly  in  Reference  to  Constitutional  Law.  —  The  Dart 
mouth  College  Case  argued  at  Washington  in  1818.  —  Mr.  Ticknor's  Description  of 
that  Argument.  —  The  Case  of  Gibbons  and  Ogdcn  in  1824.  —  Mr.  Justice  Wayne's 
Allusion  to  that  Case  in  1847.  —  The  Case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders  in  1827.  —  The 
Case  of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Charles  River  Bridge.  —  The  Alabama  Bank  Case. — 
The  Case  relative  to  the  Boundary  between  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  —  The 
Girard  Will  Case.  —  The  Case  of  the  Constitution  of  Rhode  Island.  —  General 
Remarks  on  Mr.  Webster's  Practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  — 
Practice  in  the  State  Courts.  —  The  Case  of  Goodridge,  —  and  the  Case  of  Knapp. 

WITH  Mr.  Webster's  removal  to  Boston  commenced  a  period 
of  five  or  six  years'  retirement  from  active  political  life,  during 
which  time,  with  a  single  exception  which  will  be  hereafter  al 
luded  to,  he  filled  no  public  office,  and  devoted  himself  exclu 
sively  to  the  duties  of  his  profession.  It  was  accordingly  within 
this  period  that  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer  was  fixed  and  estab 
lished.  The  promise  of  his  youth,  and  the  expectations  of  those 
who  had  known  him  as  a  student,  were  more  than  fulfilled. 
He  took  a  position  as  a  counsellor  and  an  advocate,  above  which 
no  one  has  ever  risen  in  the  country.  A  large  share  of  the  best 
business  of  New  England  passed  into  his  hands  ;  and  the  veter 
ans  of  the  Boston  bar  admitted  him  to  an  entire  equality  of 
standing,  repute,  and  influence. 

Besides  the  reputation  which  he  acquired  in  the  ordinary  rou 
tine  of  practice,  Mr.  Webster,  shortly  after  his  removal  to  Bos 
ton,  took  the  lead  in  establishing  what  might  almost  be  called  a 
new  school  of  constitutional  law.  It  fell  to  his  lot  to  perform  a 
prominent  part  in  unfolding  a  most  important  class  of  consti 
tutional  doctrines,  which,  either  because  occasion  had  not  drawn 
them  forth,  or  the  jurists  of  a  former  period  had  failed  to  de 
duce  and  apply  them,  had  not  yet  grown  into  a  system.  It 
was  reserved  for  Mr.  Webster  to  distinguish  himself  before 
most,  if  not  all,  of  his  contemporaries,  in  this  branch  of  his  pro 
fession.  It  may  be  mentioned  as  a  somewhat  curious  coinci 
dence,  that  the  case  in  which  he  made  his  first  great  effort  in 
this  direction  arose  in  his  native  State,  and  concerned  the  Col 
lege  in  which  he  had  been  educated. 

In  the  months  of  June  and  December,  1816,  the  legislature  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

New  Hampshire  passed  acts  altering  the  charter  of  Dartmouth 
College  (of  which  the  name  was  changed  to  Dartmouth  Univer 
sity),  enlarging  the  number  of  the  trustees,  and  generally  reor 
ganizing  the  corporation.  These  acts,  although  passed  without 
the  consent  and  against  the  protest  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Col 
lege,  went  into  operation.  The  newly  created  body  took  posses 
sion  of  the  corporate  property,  and  assumed  the  administration 
of  the  institution.  The  old  board  were  all  named  as  mem 
bers  of  the  new  corporation,  but  declined  acting  as  such,  and 
brought  an  action  against  the  treasurer  of  the  new  board  for  the 
books  of  record,  the  original  charter,  the  common  seal,  and  other 
corporate  property  of  the  College. 

The  action  was  commenced  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
for  Grafton  County,  in  February,  1817,  and  carried  immediately 
to  the  Superior  Court,  in  May  of  the  same  year.  The  general 
issue  was  pleaded  by  the  defendants  and  joined  by  the  plain 
tiffs.  The  case  turned  upon  the  point,  whether  the  acts  of  the 
legislature  above  referred  to  were  binding  upon  the  corporation 
without  their  assent,  and  not  repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  first  argued  by  Messrs.  Jeremiah  Mason 
and  Jeremiah  Smith  for  the  plaintiffs,  and  by  the  Attorney- Gen 
eral  of  New  Hampshire  for  the  defendants;  and  subsequently 
by  Messrs.  Mason,  Smith,  and  Webster  for  the  plaintiffs,  and 
the  Attorney-General  and  Mr.  I.  Bartlett  for  the  defendants.  At 
the  November  term  it  was  decided  by  the  Superior  Court  of  New 
Hampshire,  in  an  opinion  delivered  by  Chief  Justice  Richard 
son,  that  the  acts  of  the  New  Hampshire  legislature  were  valid 
and  constitutional.  In  giving  his  opinion  on  the  case,  the  Chief 
Justice  said:  "The  cause  has  been  argued  on  both  sides  with 
uncommon  learning  and  ability,  and  we  have  witnessed  a  display 
of  talents  and  eloquence  upon  this  occasion  in  the  highest  degree 
honorable  to  the  profession  of  the  law  in  this  State."  * 

The  case  thus  decided  in  the  Superior  Court  of  New  Hamp 
shire  in  favor  of  the  validity  of  the  State  laws,  was  carried  by 
writ  of  error  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where. 
on  the  10th  of  March,  1818,  it  came  on  for  argument  before  all 
the  judges,  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  (afterwards  Judge)  Hopkinson 
for  the  plaintiffs,  and  Mr.  J.  Holmes  of  Maine  and  the  Attor- 

*  1  New  Hampshire  Reports,  p.  113. 
VOL.  i.  e 


1  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

torney- General,  "Wirt,  for  the  defendants  in  error.  This  was  per 
haps  the  first  occasion  in  this  country  on  which  a  question  pre 
cisely  of  this  kind  had  come  up,  and  it  is  stated  that,  when  one 
of  the  court  had  run  his  eye  cursorily  over  the  record,  he  said 
that  he  did  not  see  how  any  thing  important  could  be  urged  by 
the  plaintiffs  in  error. 

It  devolved  upon  Mr.  Webster,  as  junior  counsel,  to  open  the 
case,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  to  any  one  who  has 
read  the  report  of  his  argument,  that,  if  such  an  impression  as  that 
just  alluded  to  existed  in  the  mind  of  any  of  the  court,  it  must 
have  been  immediately  dispelled.  The  ground  was  broadly  taken, 
that  the  acts  in  question  were  not  only  against  common  right 
and  the  constitution  of  New  Hampshire,  but  also,  and  this  was 
the  leading  principle,  against  the  provision  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  which  forbids  the  individual  States  from 
passing  laws  that  impair  the  obligation  of  contracts.  Under 
the  first  head,  the  entire  English  law  relative  to  educational 
foundations  was  unfolded  by  Mr.  Webster,  and  it  was  shown  that 
colleges,  unless  otherwise  specifically  constituted  by  their  char 
ters,  were  private  eleemosynary  corporations,  over  whose  prop 
erty,  members,  and  franchises  the  crown  has  no  control,  except 
by  due  process  of  law,  for  acts  inconsistent  with  their  charters. 
The  whole  learning  of  the  subject  was  brought  to  bear  with 
overwhelming  weight  on  this  point. 

The  second  main  point  required  to  be  less  elaborately  argued; 
namely,  that  such  a  charter  is  a  contract  which  it  is  not  competent 
for  a  State  to  annul.  The  argument  throughout  was  pursued 
with  a  closeness  and  vigor  which  have  been  rarely  witnessed  in 
our  courts.  The  topics  were  beyond  the  usual  range  of  foren 
sic  investigation  in  this  country.  The  constitutional  principles 
sought  to  be  applied  were  of  commanding  importance.  Great 
public  expectation  was  awakened  by  the  novelty  and  magni 
tude  of  the  case.  The  personal  connection  of  Mr.  Webster 
with  Dartmouth  College  as  the  place  of  his  education  gave  a 
fervor  to  his  manner,  which  added,  no  doubt,  to  the  effect  of  the 
reasoning.  On  this  point  Mr.  Ticknor  expresses  himself  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

"  Mr.  Webster's  argument  is  given  in  this  volume  [the  first  collection 
of  his  works],  that  is,  we  have  there  the  technical  outline ;  the  dry  skele 
ton  of  it.  But  those  who  heard  him  when  it  was  originally  delivered 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  ft 

still  wonder  how  such  dry  bones  could  ever  have  lived  with  the  power 
they  there  witnessed  and  felt.  He  opened  his  cause,  as  he  always  does, 
with  perfect  simplicity  in  the  general  statement  of  its  facts,  and  then 
went  on  to  unfold  the  topics  of  his  argument  in  a  lucid  order,  which  made 
each  position  sustain  every  other.  The  logic  and  the  law  were  rendered 
irresistible.  But  as  he  advanced,  his  heart  warmed  to  the  subject  and 
the  occasion.  Thoughts  and  feelings  that  had  grown  old  with  his  best 
affections  rose  unbidden  to  his  lips.  He  remembered  that  the  institution 
he  was  defending  was  the  one  where  his  own  youth  had  been  nurtured ; 
and  the  moral  tenderness  and  beauty  this  gave  to  the  grandeur  of  his 
thoughts,  the  sort  of  religious  sensibility  it  imparted  to  his  urgent  ap 
peals  and  demands  for  the  stern  fulfilment  of  what  law  and  justice  re 
quired,  wrought  up  the  whole  audience  to  an  extraordinary  state  of  excite 
ment.  Many  betrayed  strong  agitation,  many  were  dissolved  in  tears. 
Prominent  among  them  was  that  eminent  lawyer  and  statesman,  Robert 
Goodloe  Harper,  who  came  to  him  when  he  resumed  his  seat,  evincing 
emotions  of  the  highest  gratification.  When  he  ceased  to  speak,  there 
was  a  perceptible  interval  before  any  one  was  willing  to  break  the 
silence;  and  when  that  vast  crowd  separated,  not  one  person  of  the  whole 
number  doubted  that  the  man  who  had  that  day  so  moved,  astonished, 
and  controlled  them,  had  vindicated  for  himself  a  place  at  the  side  of  the 
first  jurists  of  the  country."  * 

The  opinion  of  the  court,  unanimous,  with  the  exception  of 
Justice  Duvall,  was  pronounced  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in 
the  term  for  1819,  declaring  the  acts  of  the  legislature  of  New 
Hampshire  to  be  unconstitutional  and  invalid,  and  reversing  the 
opinion  of  the  court  below.  By  this  opinion  the  law  of  the 
land  in  reference  to  collegiate  charters  was  firmly  established. 
Henceforward  our  colleges  and  universities  and  their  trustees, 
unless  provision  to  the  contrary  is  made  in  their  acts  of  incor 
poration,  stand  upon  the  broad  basis  of  common  right  and  jus 
tice  ;  holding  in  like  manner  as  individuals  their  property  and 
franchises  by  a  firm  legal  tenure,  and  not  subject  to  control  or 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  local  legislatures  on  the  vague 
ground  that  public  institutions  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  govern 
ment.  That  such  is  the  recognized  law  of  the  land  is  owing  in 
no  small  degree  to  the  ability  with  which  the  Dartmouth  Col 
lege  case  was  argued  by  Mr.  Webster.  The  battle  fought  and 
the  victory  gained  in  this  case  were  fought  and  gained  for  every 

*  American  Review,  Vol.  IX.  p.  434 


Hi  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

college  and  university,  for  every  academy  and  school,  in  the 
"United  States,  endowed  with  property  or  possessed  of  chartered 
rights.  It  ought  to  be  mentioned,  to  the  credit  of  the  State  of 
New  Hampshire,  that  she  readily  acquiesced  in  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  made  no  attempt 
to  sustain  her  recent  legislation. 

This  celebrated  cause,  argued  with  such  success  before  the 
highest  tribunal  in  the  country,  established  Mr  Webster's  posi 
tion  in  the  profession.  It  placed  him  at  once  with  Emmett 
and  Pinkney  and  Wirt,  in  the  front  rank  of  the  American  bar, 
and,  though  considerably  the  youngest  of  this  illustrious  group, 
on  an  equality  with  the  most  distinguished  of  them.  He 
was  henceforward  retained  in  almost  every  considerable  cause 
argued  at  Washington.  No  counsel  in  the  United  States  has 
probably  been  engaged  in  a  larger  portion  of  the  business 
brought  before  that  tribunal.  While  Mr.  Webster  as  a  politi 
cian  and  a  statesman  has  performed  an  amount  of  intellectual 
labor,  as  is  abundantly  shown  in  these  volumes,  sufficient  to 
form  the  sole  occupation  of  an  active  life,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  his  arguments  to  the  court  and  his  addresses  to  the  jury  in 
important  suits  at  law  would,  if  they  had  been  reported  like 
his  political  speeches,  have  filled  a  much  greater  space. 

It  would  exceed  the  limits  of  this  sketch  to  allude  in  detail  to 
all  the  cases  argued  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States ;  still  less  would  it  be  practicable  to  trace  him 
through  his  labors  in  the  State  courts.  We  can  barely  men 
tion  a  few  of  the  more  considerable  causes.  The  case  of  Gib 
bons  and  Ogden,  in  1824,  is  one  of  great  celebrity.  In  this 
case  the  grant  by  the  State  of  New  York  to  the  assignees  of 
Fulton,  of  an  exclusive  right  to  navigate  the  rivers,  harbors,  and 
bays  of  New  York  by  steam,  was  called  in  question,  and  was 
decided  to  be  unconstitutional,  after  having  been  maintained 
by  all  the  tribunals  of  that  great  and  respectable  State.  The 
decision  of  this  great  case  turned  upon  the  principle,  that  the 
grant  of  such  a  monopoly  of  the  right  to  enter  a  portion  of 
the  navigable  waters  of  the  Union  was  an  encroachment,  by 
the  State,  upon  the  power  "to  regulate  commerce,"  —  a  pow 
er  reserved  by  the  Constitution  to  Congress,  and  in  its  na 
ture  exclusive.  The  cause  was  argued  by  Messrs.  Webster 
and  Wirt  for  the  plaintiffs,  and  by  Messrs.  Oakley  and  Em- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  Jiii 

mett  for  the  defendants  in  error,  —  an  array  of  talent  worthy  the 
magnitude  of  the  interests  at  stake.  The  decision  of  the  court 
was  against  the  monopoly.  Few  cases  in  the  annals  of  federal 
jurisprudence  are  of  equal  importance ;  none,  perhaps,  was 
ever  argued  with  greater  ability.  In  the  course  of  his  discus 
sion,  Mr.  Webster  said,  with  great  felicity  of  illustration,  that, 
by  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution,  the  commerce  of  this 
whola  country  had  become  a  unit,  a  form  of  expression  used 
with  approbation  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  delivering  the 
opinion  of  the  court. 

A  very  distinguished  compliment  was  paid  to  Mr.  Webster's 
argument  in  this  case,  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  its  delivery, 
by  Mr.  Justice  Wayne  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  On  the  occasion  of  Mr.  Webster's  visit  to  the  South, 
in  the  spring  of  1847,  he  was  received  with  public  honors, 
among  other  places,  at  Savannah.  He  was  there  addressed  by 
Judge  Wayne  on  behalf  of  his  fellow-citizens.  In  the  course 
of  his  remarks  on  that  occasion,  Judge  Wayne  alluded  to 
Mr.  Webster's  line  of  argument  in  this  case  in  the  following 
manner :  — 

"  From  one  of  your  constitutional  suggestions,  every  man  in  the  land 
has  been  more  or  less  benefited.  We  allude  to  it  with  the  greater 
pleasure,  because  it  was  in  a  controversy  begun  by  a  Georgian  in  behalf 
of  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  citizen.  When  the  late  Mr.  Thomas 
Gibbons  determined  to  put  to  hazard  a  large  part  of  his  fortune  in  test 
ing  the  constitutionality  of  the  laws  of  New  York  limiting  the  naviga 
tion  of  the  waters  of  that  State  to  steamers  belonging  to  a  company,  his 
own  interest  was  not  so  much  concerned  as  the  right  of  every  citizen  to 
use  a  coasting  license  upon  the  waters  of  the  United  States,  in  whatever 
way  their  vessels  might  be  propelled.  It  was  a  sound  view  of  the  law, 
but  not  broad  enough  for  the  occasion.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
case  would  have  been  decided  upon  it,  if  you  had  not  insisted  that  it 
should  be  put  upon  the  broader  constitutional  ground  of  commerce 
and  navigation.  The  court  felt  the  application  and  force  of  your  rea 
soning,  and  it  made  a  decision  releasing  every  creek,  and  river,  lake, 
bay,  and  harbor  in  our  country  from  the  interference  of  monopolies, 
which  had  already  provoked  unfriendly  legislation  between  some  of  the 
States,  and  which  would  have  been  as  little  favorable  to  the  interest  of 
Fulton,  as  they  were  unworthy  his  genius." 

The  case  of  Ogden  and  Saunders,  in  1827,  brought  in  ques- 


liv  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

tion  the  right  of  a  State  to  pass  an  insolvent  law.  It  was  of 
course  a  case  of  high  constitutional  law,  belonging  to  the  same 
general  class  with  those  just  mentioned,  and  relating  to  the 
limit  of  the  powers  of  the  several  States,  in  reference  to  matters 
confided  by  the  Constitution  to  the  general  government.  This 
cause  was  argued  by  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  David  B.  Ogden  of 
New  York  for  the  plaintiffs,  and  by  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Hen 
ry  Wheaton  for  the  defendants  in  error.  In  his  argument  in 
this  case,  Mr.  Webster  maintained  the  entire  unconstitutionali- 
ty  of  State  bankrupt  laws.  This  was  a  step  in  advance  of  the 
doctrines  laid  down  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  case  of  Sturges  and  Crowninshield,  nor  did  the 
court  on  the  present  occasion  incline  to  go  further  than  they 
had  done  in  that  case.  They  were  divided  in  opinion,  but  a 
majority  of  the  judges  held,  that,  although  it  was  not  compe 
tent  to  a  State  to  pass  a  law  discharging  a  debtor  from  the  ob 
ligation  of  payment,  they  might  pass  a  law  to  discharge  him 
from  imprisonment  on  personal  execution.  The  Chief  Justice 
and  Judge  Story  were  the  minority  of  the  court,  and  the  opin 
ion  of  the  Chief  Justice  sustained  the  principle  of  Mr.  Web 
ster's  argument,  which  is,  in  fact,  usually  regarded  as  not  fall 
ing  below  his  most  successful  forensic  efforts.  The  manner  in 
which  he  meets  the  argument  in  favor  of  a  prospective  State 
insolvent  law,  namely,  that  such  a  law  cannot  impair  the  obli 
gation  of  a  contract  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  contract,  may 
be  quoted  as  a  specimen  of  the  acutest  dialectics  brought  in 
aid  of  the  broadest  views  of  constitutional  law. 

In  the  year  1836,  Mr.  Webster  argued  at  Washington  the 
great  cause  of  the  proprietors  of  Charles  River  Bridge.  This 
well-remembered  case  was  a  suit  in  chancery  commenced  in 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  where  the  bill  was  dis 
missed  by  a  decree  pro  forma,  the  members  of  that  court  being 
equally  divided  in  opinion.  A  writ  of  error  was  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  on  the  ground  that  the 
rights  of  the  proprietors  of  Charles  River  Bridge  under  their 
charter  had  been  violated  by  the  legislature,  in  authorizing  the 
erection  of  Warren  Bridge.  The  cause  was  argued  at  Wash 
ington,  in  1836,  and,  having  been  then  held  under  advisement 
6y  the  court  for  a  year,  was,  upon  difference  of  opinion  among 
the  judges,  ordered  to  be  again  argued,  which  was  done  in 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  lv 

1837.  This  was  another  of  the  great  constitutional  cases 
argued  by  Mr.  Webster  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  The  abstract  principles  of  the  case  were  per 
haps  as  clear  as  in  those  to  which  we  have  alluded  ;  but  there 
were  practical  difficulties,  no  doubt,  in  their  application  to  re 
strain  the  right  of  a  legislature  to  grant  an  act  of  incorporation, 
in  the  usual  form,  for  the  construction  of  a  new  bridge,  on  the 
ground  of  interference  with  some  prior  similar  franchise.  The 
opinion  of  the  court,  adverse  to  the  complainants,  was  deliv 
ered  by  Chief  Justice  Taney.  Mr.  Justice  McLean  was  clearly 
of  opinion  that  the  merits  of  the  case  were  with  the  complain 
ants,  but  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had  no 
jurisdiction  over  it.  Mr.  Justice  Story  dissented  from  the  ma 
jority,  and  sustained  the  doctrines  advanced  by  Mr.  Webster 
ill  a  very  learned  and  powerfully  reasoned  opinion. 

In  1839  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  (so  called),  which  was  incorporated  by  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  after  the  termination  of  the  Congressional  charter, 
were  drawn  in  question  by  a  case  from  the  State  of  Alabama, 
in  which  the  right  of  a  corporation  or  a  citizen  in  one  State  to 
perform  any  legal  act  in  another  was  asserted  by  Mr.  Web 
ster,  arid  his  argument  was  sustained  by  the  court.  Not  long 
afterwards  the  controversy  between  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island  relative  to  their  boundary,  a  controversy  running  back 
to  the  earliest  periods  of  their  colonial  history,  was  brought 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  at  Washington,  and  argued  by  Mr. 
Webster  for  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

In  1844  the  important  case  relative  to  the  validity  of  Mr. 
Girard's  bequest  of  the  greater  part  of  his  estate  to  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  for  the  foundation  of  a  college  for  orphans, 
was  argued  by  Mr.  Webster  before  the  Supreme  Court,  at 
Washington,  for  the  heirs  at  law.  One  of  the  grounds  on 
which  the  bequest  was  impeached  by  them  was,  the  exclu 
sion  by  the  will  of  all  ecclesiastics,  missionaries,  or  minis 
ters,  of  whatever  sect,  from  all  offices  in  the  college,  and  even 
from  admission  within  the  premises  as  visitors.  So  impressive 
was  Mr.  Webster's  argument  upon  the  importance  of  making 
provision  for  religious  instruction  in  all  institutions  for  educa 
tion,  that  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Washington  belonging 
to  different  religious  denominations  was  held,  at  which  a  reso- 


Ivi         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

iution  was  passed  expressing  the  opinion  entertained  by  the 
meeting  of  the  great  value  of  Mr.  Webster's  argument,  "  in 
demonstrating  the  vital  importance  of  Christianity  to  the  suc 
cess  of  our  free  institutions,  and  that  the  general  diffusion  of 
that  argument  among  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  a 
matter  of  deep  public  interest."  A  committee  of  eight  gentle 
men  of  the  different  denominations  of  Christians  in  the  city 
was  appointed  to  wait  upon  Mr.  Webster,  and  request  him  to 
prepare  for  the  press  the  report  of  that  portion  of  his  argu 
ment  in  which  this  important  topic  is  treated. 

Tn  the  month  of  January,  1848,  the  great  Rhode  Island  case 
was  brought  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
and  argued  by  Mr.  Webster  for  the  chartered  government  of 
the  State,  and  against  the  insurrectionary  government,  to  which 
an  abortive  attempt  had  been  made  to  give  the  form  of  a  con 
stitution,  by  a  pretended  act  of  the  popular  will.  The  true  prin 
ciples  of  popular  and  constitutional  government  are  explored 
with  unsurpassed  sagacity  in  this  argument.  Some  copies  of 
the  report  of  it  in  a  pamphlet  form  reached  Europe  during  the 
memorable  year  of  1848,  when  the  Continent  was  convulsed 
with  revolutionary  struggles  from  one  end  to  the  other.  It 
was  there  regarded  as  a  most  seasonable  and  instructive  com 
mentary  on  the  nature  of  constitutional  obligations,  and  of 
the  rights  of  the  people  to  modify  their  institutions  of  gov 
ernment. 

A  large  portion  of  the  causes  argued  by  Mr.  Webster  be 
long  to  the  province  of  constitutional  law,  and  have  their 
origin  in  that  partition  of  powers  which  exists  between  the 
State  governments  and  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
each  clothed  with  sovereignty  in  its  appropriate  sphere,  each 
subject  to  limitations  resulting  from  its  relations  to  the  other, 
each  possessing  its  legislative  bodies,  its  judicial  tribunals, 
its  executive  authorities,  and  consequently  armed  with  the 
means  of  asserting  its  rights,  and  both  combined  into  one 
great  political  system.  In  such  a  system  it  cannot  but  happen 
that  questions  of  conflicting  jurisdiction  should  arise.  WThen 
we  consider  that  the  powers  of  these  two  orders  of  govern 
ment  are  denned  in  written  constitutions  of  recent  date,  and 
that  all  the  direct  precedents  of  administration  must  of  neces 
sity,  at  the  oldest,  be  still  more  recent,  we  cannot  but  wonder 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          Mi 

at  the  small  number  of  disputed  cases  which  have  arisen,  and 
at  the  sagacity,  forethought,  and  practical  wisdom  of  the  found 
ers  of  our  government,  who  made  such  admirable  provision  foi 
the  harmonious  operation  of  the  system. 

Still,  however,  it  was  impossible  that  the  class  of  cases  pro 
vided  for  by  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  should  not  present  themselves,  and  no  small 
portion  of  Mr.  Webster's  forensic  life  has  been  devoted  to  their 
investigation.  It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  they  are  ques 
tions  of  an  elevated  character.  They  often  involve  the  validity 
of  the  legislative  acts  and  judicial  decisions  of  governments 
substantially  independent,  as  they  may  in  fact  the  constitution 
ality  of  the  acts  of  Congress  itself.  No  court  in  England  will 
allow  any  thing,  not  even  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  government, 
or  the  most  undoubted  principles  of  the  law  of  nations,  to  be 
pleaded  against  an  act  of  Parliament.  The  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  entertains  the  question  not  only  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  acts  of  the  legislatures  of  States  pos 
sessing  most  of  the  attributes  of  sovereignty,  but  also  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  acts  of  the  national  legislature,  which 
possesses  those  attributes  of  sovereignty  which  are  denied  tp 
the  States.  These  circumstances  give  great  dignity  to  its  de 
liberations,  and  tend  materially  to  elevate  the  character  of  a  con 
stitutional  lawyer  in  the  United  States.*  Professional  training 
in  England  has  not  been  deemed  the  best  school  of  statesman 
ship  ;  but  it  will  be  readily  perceived,  that  in  this  country  a 
great  class  of  questions,  and  those  of  the  highest  importance, 
belong  alike  to  the  senate  and  the  court.  Every  one  must  feel 
that,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Webster,  the  lawyer  and  the  states 
man  have  contributed  materially  to  form  each  other. 

Before  quite  quitting  this  subject,  it  may  be  proper  to  allude 
to  Mr.  Webster's  professional  labors  of  another  class,  in  the 
ordinary  State  tribunals.  Employed  as  counsel  in  all  the  most 
important  cases  during  a  long  professional  life,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say,  that  his  investigations  have  extended  to  every 
department  of  the  law,  and  that  his  speeches  to  the  jury  and 
arguments  to  the  court  have  evinced  a  mastery  of  the  learning 

*  "  Crescit  enim  cum  amplitudine  rerum  vis  ingenii,  nee  quisquam  claram  et 
inlustrem  orationem  efficere  potest,  nisi  qui  causam  parem  invenit."  The  dia 
logue  De  Oraloribus,  §  37,  usually  printed  with  the  works  of  Tacitus. 


Iviii         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

and  a  control  of  the  logic  belonging  to  it,  which  are  in  most 
cases  to  be  attained  only  by  the  exclusive  study  and  practice  of 
a  life.  The  jurist  and  the  advocate  are  so  mingled  in  Mr.  Web 
ster's  professional  character,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  say  which  pre 
dominates.  His  fervid  spirit  and  glowing  imagination  place  at 
his  control  all  the  resources  of  an  overwhelming  rhetoric,  and 
make  him  all-powerful  with  a  jury ;  while  the  ablest  court  is 
guided  by  his  severe  logic,  ai*d  instructed  by  the  choice  which 
he  lays  before  them  of  the  most  appropriate  learning  of  the  cases 
which  he  argues.  It  happens,  unfortunately,  that  forensic  efforts 
of  this  kind  are  rarely  reported  at  length.  A  brief  sketch  of  an 
important  Jaw  argument  finds  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  case, 
but  distinguished  counsel  rarely  have  time  or  bestow  the  labor 
required  to  reproduce  in  writing  an  elaborate  address  either  to 
court  or  jury.  There  is  probably  no  species  of  intellectual  labor 
of  the  highest  order,  which  perishes  for  want  of  a  contemporary 
record  to  the  same  extent  as  that  which  is  daily  exerted  in  the 
courts  of  law. 

The  present  collection  contains  two  speeches  addressed  to  the 
jury  by  Mr.  Webster  in  criminal  trials.  One  was  delivered  in 
the  case  of  Goodridge,  and  in  defence  of  the  persons  whom  he 
accused  of  having  robbed  him  on  the  highway.  This  cause 
was  tried  in  1817,  shortly  after  the  establishment  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  at  Boston.  Rarely  has  a  case,  in  itself  of  no  greater  im 
portance,  produced  a  stronger  impression  of  the  ability  of  the 
counsel.  The  cross-examination  of  Goodridge,  who  pretended 
to  have  been  robbed,  and  who  had  previously  been  considered 
a  person  of  some  degree  of  respectability,  is  still  remembered 
at  the  bar  of  Massachusetts  as  terrific  beyond  example,  and 
the  speech  to  the  jury  in  which  his  artfully  contrived  tale 
was  stripped  of  its  disguises  may  be  studied  as  a  model  of  this 
species  of  exposition. 

Mr.  Webster's  speech  to  the  jury  in  the  memorable  case  of 
John  F.  Knapp  is  of  a  higher  interest.  The  great  importance  of 
this  case,  as  well  on  account  of  the  legal  principles  involved,  as 
of  the  depth  of  the  tragedy  in  real  life  with  which  it  was  con 
nected,  has  given  it  a  painful  celebrity.  A  detailed  history  of 
the  case  and  of  the  trial,  from  the  pen  of  the  late  ingenious  and 
*earned  Mr.  Merrill,  will  be  found  prefixed  to  Mr.  Webster's 
speech,  as  contained  in  the  fifth  volume  of  this  collection.  The 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  lix 

record  of  the  causes  celebres  of  no  country  or  age  will  furnish 
either  a  more  thrilling  narrative,  or  a  forensic  effort  of  greater 
ability.  A  passage  on  the  power  of  conscience  will  arrest  the 
attention  of  the  reader.  There  is  nothing  in  the  language  su 
perior  to  it.  It  was  unquestionably  owing  to  the  legal  skill  and 
moral  courage  with  which  the  case  was  conducted  by  Mr. 
Webster,  that  one  of  the  foulest  crimes  ever  committed  was 
brought  to  condign  punishment;  and  the  nicest  refinements 
of  the  law  of  evidence  were  made  the  means  of  working  out 
the  most  important  practical  results.  But  it  is  time  to  return  to 
the  chronological  series  of  events. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts. — John  Adams  a  Dele 
gate.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Share  in  its  Proceedings.  —  Speeches  on  Oaths  of  Office, 
Basis  of  Senatorial  Representation,  and  Independence  of  the  Judiciary. —  Centen 
nial  Anniversary  at  Plymouth  on  the  22d  of  Decemher,  1820.  —  Discourse  delivered 
by  Mr.  Webster.  —  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  and  Address  by  Mr.  Webster  on  the 
Laying  of  the  Corner- Stone,  17th  of  June,  1825.  —  Discourse  on  the  Completion 
of  the  Monument,  17th  of  June,  1843. —  Simultaneous  Decease  of  Adams  and 
Jefferson  on  the  4th  of  July,  1826. —  Eulogy  by  Mr.  Webster  in  Faneuil  Hall.  — 
Address  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone  of  the  New  Wing  of  the  Capitol. — 
Remarks  on  the  Patriotic  Discourses  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  on  the  Character  of  his 
Eloquence  in  Efforts  of  this  Class. 

IN  1820,  on  the  separation  of  Maine,  a  convention  became 
necessary  in  Massachusetts  to  readjust  the  Senate ;  and  the 
occasion  was  deemed  a  favorable  one  for  a  general  revision  of 
the  constitution.  The  various  towns  in  the  Commonwealth 
were  authorized  by  law  to  choose  as  many  delegates  as  they 
were  entitled  to  elect  members  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  ;  and  a  body  was  constituted  containing  much  of  the  tal 
ent,  political  experience,  and  weight  of  character  of  the  State. 
Mr.  Webster  was  chosen  one  of  the  delegates  from  Boston; 
and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  days'  service,  two  or  three 
years  afterwards,  in  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representa 
tives,*  this  is  the  only  occasion  on  which  he  ever  filled  any 
political  office  under  the  State  government  either  of  Massachu 
setts  or  New  Hampshire. 

The  venerable  John  Adams,  second  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  a  delegate  to  this  convention  from  Quincy.  He 
was  the  author  of  the  original  draft  of  the  State  constitution 
in  1780,  and  although  his  advanced  age  (he  was  now  eighty- 

*  Mr.  Webster  makes  the  following  playful  allusion  to  this  circumstance  in  a 
speech  at  a  public  dinner  in  Syracuse  (New  York),  in  the  month  of  May  of  the 
present  year  :  — 

"  It  has  so  happened  that  all  the  public  services  which  I  have  rendered  in 
the  world,  in  my  day  and  generation,  have  been  connected  with  the  general  gov 
ernment.  I  think  I  ought  to  make  an  exception.  I  was  ten  days  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  and  I  turned  my  thoughts  to  the  search  for  some 
good  object  in  which  I  could  be  useful  in  that  position  ;  and,  after  much  reflec 
tion,  1  introduced  a  bill  which,  with  the  general  consent  of  both  houses  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  passed  into  a  law,  and  is  now  a  law  of  the  State, 
which  enacts  that  no  man  in  the  State  shall  catch  trout  in  any  other  manner  than 
in  the  old  way,  with  an  ordinary  hook  and  line." 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  bd 

six  years  old)  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  take  an  active 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  convention,  he  received  the 
honor  of  a  unanimous  election  as  president.  He  declined 
the  appointment ;  and  Chief  Justice  Parker  was  chosen  in  his 
place. 

The  convention  of  1820  was  no  doubt  as  respectable  a  po 
litical  body  as  ever  assembled  in  Massachusetts ;  and  it  is  no 
more  than  justice  to  Mr.  Webster  to  say,  that,  although  he 
had  been  but  a  few  years  a  citizen  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
was  personally  a  stranger  to  most  of  his  associates,  he  was 
among  the  most  efficient  members  of  the  body.  He  was 
named  chairman  of  the  committee  to  whom  the  important  sub 
ject  of  oaths  and  qualifications  for  office  was  referred,  and  of 
the  special  committee  on  that  chapter  of  the  constitution 
which  relates  to  the  "  University  at  Cambridge."  Besides 
taking  a  leading  part  in  the  discussion  of  most  of  the  impor 
tant  subjects  which  were  agitated  in  the  convention,  he  was 
the  authority  most  deferred  to  on  questions  of  order,  and  in 
that  way  exercised  a  steady  and  powerful  influence  over  the 
general  course  of  its  proceedings.  It  is  believed  that  on  this 
occasion  the  practice  of  considering  business  in  committee  of 
the  whole  body  was  for  the  first  time  adopted  in  Massachu 
setts;  that  mode  of  procedure  never  having  obtained  in  the 
legislature  of  the  State.  The  dignified  and  efficient  manner 
in  which  the  duties  of  the  chair  were  performed  by  Mr.  Web 
ster,  whenever  he  was  called  to  occupy  it,  was  matter  of  gen 
eral  remark.  It  has  often  been  a  subject  of  regret  with  those 
who  witnessed  the  uncommon  aptitude  evinced  by  him  on 
these,  as  on  similar  occasions  at  Washington,  for  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  of  presiding  officer  of  a  deliberative  assembly, 
that  he  was  never,  during  his  Congressional  career,  called  to 
the  important  office  of  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives.  Considering  the  relation  of  the  House  to  the  political 
condition  of  the  country,  there  is  no  position  under  the  govern 
ment  which  bears  more  directly  upon  the  general  character  of 
the  public  counsels.  The  place  has  occasionally,  both  in  for 
mer  times  and  recently,  been  filled  with  great  ability ;  but  it 
has  more  frequently  happened  that  speakers  have  been  chosen 
from  considerations  of  political  expediency,  and  without  regard 
to  personal  qualifications  and  fitness  for  the  office.  The  effect 

VOL.  i.  / 


Ixii         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

has  been  highly  prejudicial  to  the  tone  of  the  House,  and  ita 
consequent  estimation  in  the  country.  It  has  frequently  hap 
pened  that  the  decisions  of  the  Speaker,  as  such,  have  com 
manded  no  respect.  An  appeal  has  been  taken  from  them  al 
most  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  state  of  things  is  very  differ 
ent  in  the  body  most  nearly  resembling  the  houses  of  Congress. 
Such  a  thing  as  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  Speaker 
on  a  point  of  order  is  hardly  known  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons,  and  the  disposition  of  all  parties  to  acquiesce  in,  if 
not  to  support,  the  decisions  of  the  chair,  is  one  of  the  charac 
teristic  features  of  that  assembly. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  convention  were  ably 
reported,  from  day  to  day,  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser;  but 
a  contemporary  report  usually  implies  much  abridgment  of 
the  speeches.  Much  that  was  said  by  Mr.  Webster,  as  by 
other  prominent  speakers,  appeared  but  in  a  condensed  form ; 
and  it  is  believed,  that,  even  when  reported  at  greatest  length 
and  with  most  care,  it  was  without  the  advantage  of  personal 
revision  by  the  speakers.  The  third  volume  of  the  present  col 
lection  contains  Mr.  Webster's  remarks  on  those  provisions  of 
the  constitution  which  related  to  oaths  of  office  and  formed  a 
kind  of  religious  test,  which  Mr.  Webster  was  disposed  to  abol 
ish  ;  a  speech  upon  the  basis  of  senatorial  representation ;  and 
another  upon  the  independence  of  the  judiciary. 

In  the  speech  on  the  basis  of  the  Senate,  Mr.  Webster  de 
fended  the  principle,  which  was  incorporated  into  the  original 
constitution,  and  is  recognized  by  the  liberal  writers  of  greatest 
authority  on  government,  that  due  regard  should  be  had  to 
property  in  establishing  a  basis  of  representation.  He  showed 
the  connection  between  the  security  of  republican  liberty  and 
this  principle.  He  first  called  attention  in  this  country  to  the 
fact,  that  this  important  principle  was  originally  developed  in 
Harrington's  Oceana,  a  work  much  studied  by  our  Revolu 
tionary  fathers.  The  practical  consequence  which  Mr.  Web 
ster  deduced  from  the  principle  was,  that  constitutional  and 
legal  provision  6*ught  to  be  made  to  produce  the  utmost  pos 
sible  diffusion  and  equality  of  property. 

It  is  a  melancholy  instance  of  the  injustice  of  party,  that  these 
views  of  Mr.  Webster,  which  contain  the  philosophy  of  consti 
tutional  republicanism  as  distinct  from  a  mere  democracy  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

numbers,  have,  even  down  to  the  present  day,  served  as  the  ba 
sis  of  a  charge  against  him  of  anti-popular  principles.  Having 
observed  in  the  speech  referred  to,  "  that  it  would  seem  to  be 
the  part  of  political  wisdom  to  found  government  on  property, 
and  to  establish  such  a  distribution  of  property  by  the  laws 
which  regulate  its  transmission  and  alienation,  as  to  interest 
the  great  majority  of  society  in  the  protection  of  the  govern 
ment,"  the  former  part  of  this  sentence  has  often  been  quoted 
as  a  substantive  rule  in  favor  of  a  moneyed  aristocracy,  and 
the  latter  uncandidly  suppressed.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  ob 
serve,  that  the  point  at  issue  was  the  constitution  of  the  sen 
atorial  districts  on  the  basis  of  the  valuation ;  and  that  it  was 
never  proposed  by  Mr.,  Webster,  or  by  any  body  else,  to  apply 
the  principle  to  individuals.  The  poor  man  in  the  rich  sena 
torial  district  possessed  as  much  political  power  as  his  wealthy 
neighbor.  The  principle,  in  fact,  is  but  another  form  of  that 
which  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  American  Revolution, 
namely,  that  representation  and  taxation  ought  to  go  hand  in 
hand. 

While  the  Massachusetts  convention  was  in  session,  Mr. 
Webster  appeared  before  the  public  in  another  department  of 
intellectual  effort,  and  with  the  most  distinguished  success.  It 
is  hazardous  for  a  person  of  great  professional  eminence  to 
venture  out  of  his  sphere ;  perhaps  the  experiment  has  never 
before  been  so  triumphantly  made.  In  1820,  Mr.  Webster  was 
invited  by  the  Pilgrim  Society  at  Plymouth  to  deliver  a  dis 
course  on  the  great  anniversary  of  New  England,  the  ever- 
memorable  22d  of  December.  Several  circumstances  contrib 
uted  on  this  occasion  to  the  interest  of  the  day.  The  peaceful 
surrender  by  Massachusetts  of  a  portion  of  her  territory,  greatly 
exceeding  in  magnitude  that  which  she  retained,  in  order  to 
form  the  new  State  of  Maine,  was  a  pleasing  exemplification 
of  that  prosperous  multiplication  of  independent  common 
wealths  within  the  limits  of  the  Union,  which  forms  one  of 
the  most  distinctive  features  in  our  history.  It  was  as  much 
an  alienation  of  territory  from  the  local  jurisdiction  of  Massa 
chusetts,  as  if  it  had  been  ceded  to  Great  Britain,  and  yet 
the  alienation  was  cordially  made.  At  this  very  time  a  con 
troversy  existed  between  the  United  States  and  England,  rela 
tive  to  the  conflicting  title  of  the  two  governments  to  a  very 


kiv       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

small  portion,  and  that  the  least  valuable  part,  of  the  same  ter 
ritory,  which,  after  the  aggravations  and  irritations  of  forty 
years  of  controversy,  was  in  1842  adjusted  by  Mr.  Webster 
and  Lord  Ashburton,  at  a  moment  when  war  seemed  all  but 
inevitable.  In  any  other  country  or  age  of  the  world,  Maine 
could  have  been  severed  from  Massachusetts  only  by  a  bloody 
revolution.  Their  amicable  separation  by  mutual  consent, 
although  neither  the  first  nor  the  second  similar  event  in  the 
United  States,  was  still  an  occurrence  which  carried  back  the 
reflections  of  thoughtful  men  to  the  cradle  of  New  England. 

These  reflections  gathered  interest  from  the  convention  then 
in  session.  It  was  impossible  not  to  feel  with  unusual  force 
the  contrast  between  the  circumstances  under  which  the  first 
simple  compact  of  government,  the  germ  of  the  American  con 
stitutions,  was  drawn  up  on  board  the  Mayflower,  and  those 
under  which  the  assembled  experience,  wisdom,  and  patriotism 
of  the  State  were  now  engaged  in  reorganizing  the  government. 
Several  of  the  topics  which  presented  themselves  to  Mr.  Web 
ster's  mind,  and  were  discussed  by  him  at  Plymouth,  had  en 
tered  into  the  debates  of  the  convention  a  few  days  before.  Still 
more,  the  close  of  the  second  century  from  the  landing  of  the 
Fathers,  with  all  its  mighty  series  of  events  in  the  social,  politi 
cal,  and  moral  world,  gave  the  highest  interest  to  the  occasion. 
Six  New  England  generations  were  to  pass  in  review.  It  was 
an  anniversary  which  could  be  celebrated  nowhere  else  as  it 
could  be  at  Plymouth.  It  was  such  an  anniversary,  with  its 
store  of  traditions,  comparisons,  and  anticipations,  as  none  then 
living  could  witness  again.  The  Pilgrim  Society  gave  utter 
ance  to  the  unanimous  feeling  of  the  community,  in  calling 
upon  Mr.  Webster  to  speak  for  the  whole  people  of  New  Eng 
land,  at  home  and  abroad,  on  this  great  occasion. 

The  discourse  delivered  by  him  in  pursuance  of  their  invita 
tion,  in  some  respects  the  most  remarkable  of  his  performances, 
begins  the  series  of  his  works  contained  in  the  present  collec 
tion,  The  felicity  and  spirit  with  which  its  descriptive  portions 
are  executed;  the  affecting  tribute  which  it  pays  to  the  memory 
of  the  Pilgrims;  the  moving  picture  of  their  sufferings  on  both 
sides  of  the  water;  the  masterly  exposition  and  analysis  of 
those  institutions  to  which  the  prosperity  of  New  England 
undei  Providence  is  owing;  the  eloquent  inculcation  of  those 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        lxv 

great  principles  of  republicanism  on  which  our* American  com 
monwealths  are  founded ;  the  instructive  survey  of  the  past, 
the  sublime  anticipations  of  the  future  of  America,  —  have 
long  since  given  this  discourse  a  classical  celebrity.  Several 
of  its  soul-stirring  passages  have  become  as  household  words 
throughout  the  country.  They  are  among  the  most  favorite 
of  the  extracts  contained  in  the  school-books.  An  entire 
generation  of  young  men  have  derived  from  this  noble  per* 
formance  some  of  their  first  lessons  in  the  true  principles  of 
American  republicanism.  It  obtained  at  once  a  wide  cir 
culation  throughout  the  country,  and  gave  to  Mr.  Webster 
a  position  among  the  popular  writers  and  speakers  of  the 
United  States  scarcely  below  that  which  he  had  already  at 
tained  as  a  lawyer  and  a  statesman.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  extra-professional  literary  effort  by  a  public  man  has  at 
tained  equal  celebrity. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  when  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument  was  to  be  laid,  on  the  fiftieth  anniver 
sary  of  the  battle,  the  general  expectation  again  pointed  to  Mr. 
Webster  as  the  orator  of  the  day.  This,  too,  was  a  great  na 
tional  and  patriotic  anniversary.  For  the  first  time,  and  after 
the  lapse  of  a  half-century,  the  commencement  of  the  war  of 
the  American  Revolution  was  to  be  publicly  celebrated  under 
novel,  significant,  and  highly  affecting  circumstances.  Fifty 
years  had  extinguished  all  the  unkindly  associations  of  the 
day,  and  raised  it  from  the  narrow  sphere  of  local  history  to  a 
high  place  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  A  great  confederacy 
had  sprung  from  the  blood  of  Bunker  Hill.  This  was  too  im 
portant  an  event  in  the  history  of  the  world  to  be  surrendered 
to  hostile  and  party  feeling.  No  friend  of  representative  gov 
ernment  in  England  had  reason  to  deplore  the  foundation  of 
the  American  republics.  No  one  can  doubt  that  the  develop 
ment  of  the  representative  principle  in  this  country  has  contrib 
uted  greatly  to  promote  the  cause  of  Parliamentary  reform  in 
Great  Britain.  Other  considerations  gave  great  interest  to  the 
festival  of  the  17th  of  June,  1825.  Fifty  years  of  national  life, 
fortune,  and  experience,  not  exhibiting  in  their  detail  an  unva 
rying  series  of  prosperity,  (for  it  was  fifty  years  in  the  history, 
not  of  angels,  but  of  men,)  but  assuredly  not  surpassed  in  the 
grand  aggregate  by  any  half-century  in  the  annals  of  the  world, 

r 


Ixvi         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

were  now  brought  to  a  close.  Vast  as  the  contrast  was  in  the 
condition  of  the  country  at  the  beginning  and  close  of  the  pe 
riod,  there  were  still  living  venerable  men  who  had  acted  prom 
inent  and  efficient  parts  in  the  opening  scenes  of  the  drama. 
Men  who  had  shared  the  perils  of  1775  shared  the  triumph  of 
the  jubilee.  More  than  a  hundred  of  the  heroes  of  the  battle 
were  among  the  joyous  participators  in  this  great  festival.  Not 
the  least  affecting  incident  of  the  celebration  was  the  presence 
of  Lafayette,  who  had  hastened  from  his  more  than  royal  prog 
ress  through  the  Union  to  take  a  part  in  the  ceremonial. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say,  that  on  such  an  occasion,  with  all 
these  circumstances  addressed  to  the  imaginations  and  the 
thoughts  of  men,  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  multitude  of  the  in 
telligent  population  of  Massachusetts  and  the  other  New  Eng 
land  States,  with  no  inconsiderable  attendance  of  kindred  and 
descendants  from  every  part  of  the  Union,  an  address  from 
such  an  orator  as  Mr.  Webster,  on  such  a  platform,  on  such  a 
theme,  in  the  flower  of  his  age  and  the  maturity  of  his  faculties, 
discoursing  upon  an  occasion  of  transcendent  interest,  and 
kindling  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  day  and  the  spot,  may 
well  be  regarded  as  an  intellectual  treat  of  the  highest  order. 
Happy  the  eyes  that  saw  that  most  glorious  gathering !  Happy 
the  ears  that  heard  the  heart-stirring  strain ! 

Scarcely  inferior  in  interest  was  the  anniversary  celebration, 
when  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  was  finally  completed,  in 
1843,  and  Mr.  Webster  again  consented  to  address  the  im 
mense  multitude  which  the  ceremonial  could  not  fail  to  bring 
together.  In  addition  to  all  the  other  sources  of  public  inter 
est  belonging  to  the  occasion,  the  completion  itself  of  the  struc 
ture  was  one  to  which  the  community  attached  great  im 
portance.  It  had  been  an  object  steadily  pursued,  under  cir 
cumstances  of  considerable  discouragement,  by  a  large  number 
of  liberal  and  patriotic  individuals,  for  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century.  The  great  work  was  now  finished ;  and  the  most 
important  event  in  the  history  of  New  England  was  hence 
forward  commemorated  by  a  monument  destined,  in  all  hu 
man  probability,  to  last  as  long  as  any  work  erected  by  the 
hands  of  man.  The  thrill  of  admiration  which  ran  through 
the  assembled  thousands,  when,  at  the  commencement  of  his 
discourse  on  that  occasion,  Mr.  Webster  apostrophized  the  mon- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

ument  itself  as  the  mute  orator  of  the  day,  has  been  spoken  of 
by  those  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  present  as  an  emotion 
beyond  the  power  of  language  to  describe.  The  gesture,  the 
look,  the  tone  of  the  speaker,  as  he  turned  to  the  majestic  shaft, 
seemed  to  invest  it  with  a  mysterious  life ;  and  men  held  their 
breath  as  if  a  solemn  voice  was  about  to  come  down  from  its 
towering  summit.  This  address  does  not  appear  to  have  had 
the  advantage  possessed  by  those  of  Plymouth  in  1820,  and  of 
Bunker  Hill  in  1825,  in  having  been  written  out  for  the  press 
by  Mr.  Webster.  It  seems  to  have  been  prepared  for  publica 
tion  from  the  reporter's  notes,  with  some  hasty  revision,  perhaps, 
by  the  author. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1826,  occurred  the  extraordinary  coin 
cidence  of  the  deaths  of  Adams  and  Jefferson,  within  a  few 
hours  of  each  other,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence ;  an  event  with  which  they  were  both  so 
closely  connected,  as  members  of  the  committee  by  which  the 
ever-memorable  state  paper  was  prepared  and  brought  into  the 
Continental  Congress.  The  public  mind  was  already  predis 
posed  for  patriotic  emotions  and  sentiments  of  every  kind  by 
many  conspiring  causes.  The  recency  of  the  Revolutionary  con 
test,  sufficiently  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  many  of  those  en 
gaged  in  it  were  still  alive  and  had  been  the  subjects  of  liberal 
provision  by  Congress ;  the  complete,  though  temporary,  fusion 
of  parties,  producing  for  a  few  years  a  political  lull,  never  wit 
nessed  to  the  same  extent  before  or  since ;  the  close  of  the  half- 
century  from  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
the  commemoration  of  its  early  conflicts  on  many  of  the  spots 
where  they  occurred ;  the  foundation  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Mon 
ument,  and  of  a  similar  work  on  a  smaller  scale  at  Concord ; 
the  visit  of  Lafayette  ;  abroad,  the  varying  scenes  of  the  Greek 
revolution  and  the  popular  movement  in  many  other  parts  of 
Europe,  —  united  in  exciting  the  public  mind  in  this  country. 
They  kindled  to  new  fervor  the  susceptible  and  impulsive 
American  temperament.  The  simultaneous  decease  of  the 
illustrious  patriarchs  of  the  Revolution,  under  these  circum 
stances  of  coincidence,  fell  upon  a  community  already  prepared 
to  be  deeply  affected.  It  touched  a  tender  chord,  which  vi 
brated  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other.  The  affecting 
event  was  noticed  throughout  the  country.  Cities  and  States 


Ixviii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

vied  with  each  other  in  demonstrations  of  respect  for  the  mem 
ory  of  the  departed.  The  heart  of  the  country  poured  itself 
forth  in  one  general  utterance  of  reverential  feeling.  Nowhere 
was  the  wonderful  event  noticed  with  greater  earnestness  and 
solemnity  of  public  sentiment  than  in  Boston.  Faneuil  Hall 
was  shrouded  in  black.  Perhaps  for  the  first  time  since  its  erec 
tion  an  organ  was  placed  in  the  gallery,  and  a  sublime  funeral 
service  was  performed.  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  the 
effect  of  preparations  like  these  upon  an  intelligent  audience, 
assembled  under  highly  wrought  feeling.  They  produced  a 
tone  of  mind  in  unison  with  the  magnificent  effort  of  thought 
which  was  to  follow. 

It  has,  perhaps,  never  been  the  fortune  of  an  orator  to  treat  a 
subject  in  all  respects  so  extraordinary  as  that  which  called 
forth  the  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson ;  a  subject  in  which 
the  characters  commemorated,  the  field  of  action,  the  magni 
tude  of  the  events,  and  the  peculiar  personal  relations,  were  so 
important  and  unusual.  Certainly  it  is  not  extravagant  to  add, 
that  no  similar  effort  of  oratory  was  ever  more  completely  suc 
cessful.  The  speech  ascribed  to  John  Adams  in  the  Conti 
nental  Congress,  on  the  subject  of  declaring  the  independence 
of  the  Colonies,  —  a  speech  of  which  the  topics  of  course  pre 
sent  themselves  on  the  most  superficial  consideration  of  the 
subject,  but  of  which  a  few  hints  only  of  what  was  actually 
said  are  supplied  by  the  letters  and  diaries  of  Mr.  Adams,  —  is 
not  excelled  by  any  thing  of  the  kind  in  our  language.  Few 
things  have  taken  so  strong  a  hold  of  the  public  mind.  It 
thrills  and  delights  alike  the  student  of  history,  who  recognizes 
it  at  once  as  the  creation  of  the  orator,  and  the  common  reader, 
who  takes  it  to  be  the  composition,  not  of  Mr.  Webster,  but  of 
Mr.  Adams.  From  the  time  the  eulogy  was  delivered  to  the 
present  day,  the  inquiry  has  been  often  made  and  repeated, 
sometimes  even  in  letters  addressed  to  Mr.  Webster  himself, 
whether  this  exquisite  appeal  is  his  or  Mr.  Adams's.  An  an- 
Bwer  to  a  letter  of  this  kind  will  be  found  appended  to  the 
eulogy  in  the  present  edition. 

These  discourses,  with  the  exception  of  the  second  Bunker 
Hill  Address,  were  delivered  within  about  five  years  of  each 
other;  the  first  on  the  22d  of  December,  1820,  the  last  on  the 
2d  of  August,  1826.  With  the  exception  named,  Mr.  Webster 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         bdx 

has  excused  himself  from  the  delivery  of  public  addresses  of  this 
class,  though  continually  invited  from  almost  every  part  of  the 
country  and  upon  occasions  of  every  kind.  Within  the  last 
twelvemonth,  however,  he  has  yielded  himself  to  the  peculiar  and 
urgent  condition  of  public  affairs,  and  has  addressed  his  fellow- 
citizens  on  several  occasions  not  immediately  connected  with 
senatorial  or  professional  duty,  and  with  the  power  and  felicity 
which  mark  his  earlier  efforts.  The  most  remarkable  of  these 
recent  addresses  is  his  speech  delivered  at  Washington  on  the 
4th  of  July,  1851,  at  the  ceremonial  of  the  laying  of  the  corner 
stone  of  the  addition  to  the  Capitol.  This  ceremonial,  itself 
of  no  ordinary  interest,  and  the  aspect  of  public  affairs  under 
which  it  was  performed,  gave  a  peculiar  fervor  and  solemnity  to 
Mr.  Webster's  treatment  of  the  subject.  Never,  perhaps,  were 
the  principles  to  which  the  great  day  is  consecrated  unfolded  in 
a  few  paragraphs  with  greater  precision  and  comprehensive 
ness;  or  the  auspicious  influence  of  these  principles  on  the 
progress  of  the  country  more  happily  set  forth.  The  contrast 
between  the  United  States  of  1793,  when  the  corner-stone  of 
the  original  Capitol  was  laid  by  President  Washington,  and 
the  United  States  of  1851,  when  this  enlargement  became  ne 
cessary,  is  brought  out  with  great  skill  and  discrimination. 
The  appeal  to  the  Southern  States,  whether  the  government 
under  which  the  Union  has  grown  and  prospered  is  a  blessing 
or  a  curse  to  the  country,  is  a  burst  of  the  highest  eloquence. 
The  allusion  and  apostrophe  to  Washington  will  be  rehearsed 
by  the  generous  youth  of  America  as  long  as  the  English  lan 
guage  is  spoken  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

This  great  oration,  perhaps  not  premeditated  so  carefully,  as 
far  as  the  mere  language  is  concerned,  as  those  of  an  earlier 
date  with  which  we  have  classed  it,  is  not  inferior  to  either  of 
them  in  the  essentials  of  patriotic  eloquence.  It  belongs,  in 
common  with  them,  to  a  species  of  oratory  neither  forensic,  nor 
parliamentary,  nor  academical;  and  which  might  perhaps  con 
veniently  enough  be  described  by  the  epithet  which  we  have  just 
applied  to  it,  —  the  patriotic.  These  addresses  are  strongly  dis 
criminated  from  the  forensic  and  the  parliamentary  class  of 
speeches,  in  being  from  the  nature  of  the  case  more  elaborately 
prepared.  The  public  taste  in  a  highly  cultivated  community 
would  not  admit,  in  a  performance  of  this  kind,  those  marks  of 


Ixx          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

extemporaneous  execution,  which  it  not  only  tolerates,  but  ad 
mires,  in  the  unpremeditated  efforts  of  the  senate  and  the  bar. 
The  latter  shines  to  greatest  advantage  in  happy  impromptu 
strokes,  whether  of  illustration  or  argument ;  the  former  admits, 
and  therefore  demands,  the  graceful  finish  of  a  mature  prepara 
tion.* 

It  is  not,  indeed,  to  be  supposed,  that  an  orator  like  Mr.  Webster 
is  slavishly  tied  down,  on  any  occasion,  to  his  manuscript  notes, 
or  to  a  memoriter  repetition  of  their  contents.  It  may  be  pre 
sumed  that  in  many  cases  the  noblest  and  the  boldest  flights, 
the  last  and  warmest  tints  thrown  upon  the  canvas,  in  discourses 
of  this  kind,  were  the  unpremeditated  inspiration  of  the  moment 
of  delivery.  The  opposite  view  would  be  absurd,  because  it 
would  imply  that  the  mind,  under  the  high  excitement  of  deliv 
ery,  was  less  fertile  and  creative  than  in  the  repose  of  the  closet. 
A  speaker  could  not,  if  he  attempted  it,  anticipate  in  his  study 
the  earnestness  and  fervor  of  spirit  induced  by  actual  contact 
with  the  audience ;  he  could  not  by  any  possibility  forestall  the 
sympathetic  influence  upon  his  imagination  and  intellect  of  the 
listening  and  applauding  throng.  However  severe  the  method 
required  by  the  nature  of  the  occasion,  or  dictated  by  his  own 
taste,  a  speaker  like  Mr.  Webster  will  not  often  confine  him 
self  "  to  pouring  out  fervors  a  week  old." 

The  orator  who  would  do  justice  to  a  great  theme  or  a  great 
occasion  must  thoroughly  study  and  understand  the  subject ;  he 
must  accurately,  and  if  possible  minutely,  digest  in  writing  be 
forehand  the  substance,  and  even  the  form,  of  his  address ;  other 
wise,  though  he  may  speak  ably,  he  will  be  apt  not  to  make  in 
all  respects  an  able  speech.  He  must  entirely  possess  himself 
beforehand  of  the  main  things  which  he  wishes  to  say,  and  then 
throw  himself  upon  the  excitement  of  the  moment  and  the  sym 
pathy  of  the  audience.  In  those  portions  of  his  discourse  which 
are  didactic  or  narrative,  he  will  not  be  likely  to  wander,  in  any 
direction,  far  from  his  notes;  although  even  in  those  portions 
new  facts,  illustrations,  and  suggestions  will  be  apt  to  spring  up 
before  him  as  he  proceeds.  But  when  the  topic  rises,  when  the 
mind  kindles  from  within,  and  the  strain  becomes  loftier,  or 

*  The  leading  ideas  in  this  and  the  following-  paragraph  may  be  found  in  a  re 
view  of  Mr.  Webster's  Speeches,  in  the  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XLI.  p. 
241,  written  by  the  author  of  this  Memoir. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         L\xi 

bolder,  or  more  pathetic,  when  the  sacred  fountain  of  tears  is 
ready  to  overflow,  and  audience  and  speaker  are  moved  by  one 
kindred  sympathetic  passion,  then  the  thick-coming  fancies  can 
not  be  kept  down,  the  storehouse  of  the  memory  is  unlocked, 
images  start  up  from  the  slumber  of  years,  and  all  that  the  ora 
tor  has  seen,  read,  heard,  or  felt  returns  in  distinct  shape  and 
vivid  colors.  The  cold  and  premeditated  text  will  no  longer 
suffice  for  the  glowing  thought.  The  stately,  balanced  phrase 
gives  place  to  some  abrupt,  graphic  expression,  that  rushes  un 
bidden  to  his  lips.  The  unforeseen  incident  or  locality  furnishes 
an  apt  and  speaking  image ;  and  the  discourse  instinctively  trans 
poses  itself  into  a  higher  key. 

Many  illustrations  of  these  remarks  may  be  found  in  the  fol 
lowing  volumes.  We  may  refer  particularly  to  the  address  to 
the  survivors  of  the  Revolution  and  the  apostrophe  to  Warren 
in  the  first  discourse  on  Bunker  Hill.  These  were  topics  too 
obvious  and  essential,  in  an  address  on  laying  the  corner-stone 
of  the  monument,  to  have  been  omitted  in  the  orator's  notes  pre 
pared  beforehand.  But  no  one  will  think  that  the  entire  apos 
trophe  to  Warren,  as  it  stands  in  the  reported  speech,  was  elab 
orated  in  the  closet  and  committed  to  memory.  In  fact  there  is 
a  slight  grammatical  inaccuracy,  caused  by  passing  from  the 
third  person  to  the  second  in  the  same  sentence,  which  is  at  once 
the  natural  consequence  and  the  proof  of  an  unpremeditated 
expansion  or  elevation  of  the  preconceived  idea.  We  see  the 
process.  When  the  sentence  commenced,  "  But,  ah !  him!  "it 
was  evidently  in  the  mind  of  the  orator  to  close  it  by  saying, 
"How  shall  I  speak  of  him?"  But  in  the  progress  of  the  sen 
tence,  forgetful,  unconscious,  of  the  grammatical  form,  but  melt 
ing  with  the  thought,  beholding,  as  he  stood  upon  the  spot 
where  the  hero  fell,  his  beloved  and  beautiful  image  rising  from 
the  ground,  he  can  no  longer  speak  o/him.  Willing  subject  of 
his  own  witchery,  he  clothes  his  conception  with  sensible  forms, 
and  speaks  to  the  glorious  being  whom  he  has  called  back  to  life. 
He  no  longer  attempts  to  discourse  of  Warren  to  the  audience, 
but  passing,  after  a  few  intervening  clauses,  from  the  third  per 
son  to  the  second,  he  exclaims,  "  How  shall  I  struggle  with  the 
emotions  that  stifle  the  utterance  of  thy  name!  Our  poor  work 
may  perish,  but  thine  shall  endure!  This  monument  may 
moulder  away ;  the  solid  ground  it  rests  upon  may  sink  down 
to  a  level  with  the  sea ;  but  thy  memory  shall  not  fail!" 


Ixxii        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Election  to  Congress  from  Boston. —  State  of  Parties.  —  Meeting  of  the  Eighteenth 
Congress.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Resolution  and  Speech  in  favor  of  the  Greeks.  —  Argu 
ment  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Case  of  Gibbons  and  Ogden.  —  Circumstances 
under  which  it  was  made.  —  Speech  on  the  Tariff  Law  of  1 824.  —  A  complete  Revis 
ion  of  the  Law  for  the  Punishment  of  Crimes  against  the  United  States  reported  by 
Mr.  Webster,  and  enacted.  —  The  Election  of  Mr.  Adams  as  President  of  the  United 
States.  — Meeting  of  the  Nineteenth  Congress,  and  State  of  Parties.  —  Congress  of 
Panama,  and  Mr.  Webster's  Speech  on  that  Subject.  —  Election  as  a  Senator  of  the 
United  States.  —  Revision  of  the  Tariff  Law  by  the  Twentieth  Congress. —  Embar 
rassments  of  the  Question.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Course  and  Speech  on  this  Subject. 

IN  the  autumn  of  1822,  Mr.  Webster  consented  to  be  a  can 
didate  for  Congress  for  the  city  (then  town)  of  Boston,  and  was 
chosen  by  a  very  large  majority  over  his  opponent,  Mr.  Jesse 
Putnam.  The  former  party  distinctions,  as  has  been  already 
observed,  had  nearly  lost  their  significance  in  Massachusetts,  as 
in  some  other  parts  of  the  country.  As  a  necessary,  or  at  least  a 
natural  consequence  of  this  state  of  things,  four  candidates  had 
already  been  brought  forward  for  the  Presidential  election  of  No 
vember,  1824;  namely,  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams  of  Massachu 
setts,  Mr.  Clay  of  Kentucky,  General  Jackson  of  Tennessee,  and 
Mr.  Crawford  of  Georgia.  Mr.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina  and 
Mr.  Lowndes  of  the  same  State  had  also  both  been  nominated 
by  their  friends  at  an  early  period  of  the  canvass ;  but  the  latter 
was  soon  removed  by  death,  and  Mr.  Calhoun  withdrew  his  pre 
tensions  in  favor  of  General  Jackson.  All  the  candidates  named 
had  either  originally  belonged  to  the  old  Democratic  party  (or 
Republican  party  as  it  was  then  more  usually  called),  or  had  for 
many  years  attached  themselves  to  it ;  but  no  one  of  them  was 
supported  on  that  ground.  Mr.  Crawford  alone  had  attempted  to 
avail  himself  of  the  ancient  party  machinery,  so  far  as  to  accept 
a  nomination  by  a  Congressional  caucus  of  his  friends.  They 
formed,  however,  but  a  minority  of  the  Republican  members  of 
Congress,  and  the  signal  failure  of  the  nomination  contributed  to 
the  final  abandonment  of  that  mode  of  procedure.  No  Presiden 
tial  candidate  has  since  been  nominated  by  a  Congressional  cau 
cus.  In  the  canvass  of  1824,  it  was  the  main  effort  of  the  friends 
of  all  the  candidates,  by  holding  out  the  prospect  of  a  liberal  basis 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      hcxiii 

of  administration,  to  draw  to  themselves  as  many  as  possible  of 
the  old  Federal  party.  In  Massachusetts,  and  generally  in  New 
England,  the  fusion  of  parties  was  complete,  and  Mr.  Adams 
received  their  united  support.  In  the  Middle  States  the  union 
was  less  perfect,  and  the  votes  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  old 
Federal  party  were  given  to  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Craw 
ford. 

The  Congressional  elections  in  Massachusetts  are  held  a  year 
in  advance.  It  was  not  till  December,  1823,  that  Mr.  Webster 
took  his  seat  as  a  member  of  the  Eighteenth  Congress.  It  has 
rarely  happened  to  an  individual,  by  engaging  in  public  life,  to 
make  an  equal  sacrifice  of  personal  interest.  Born  to  an  inher 
itance  of  poverty,  struggling  through  youth  and  early  manhood 
against  all  the  difficulties  of  straitened  means  and  a  narrow 
sphere,  he  had  risen  above  them  all,  and  was  now  in  an  advan 
tageous  position,  at  the  height'  of  his  reputation,  receiving  as 
great  a  professional  income  as  any  lawyer  in  the  United  States, 
and  rapidly  laying  the  foundation  of  an  ample  independence. 
All  this  was  to  be  put  at  risk  for  the  hazardous  uncertain 
ties,  and  the  scarcely  less  hazardous  certainties,  of  public  life. 
It  was  not  till  after  repeated  refusals  of  a  nomination  to  both 
houses  of  Congress,  that  Mr.  Webster  was  at  last  called  upon,  in 
a  manner  which  seemed  to  him  imperative,  to  make  the  great 
sacrifice.  In  fact,  it  may  truly  be  said,  that,  to  an  individual 
of  his  commanding  talent  and  familiarity  with  political  affairs, 
and  consequent  ability  to  take  a  lead  in  the  public  business,  the 
question  whether  he  shall  do  so  is  hardly  submitted  to  his  op 
tion.  It  is  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  second-rate  men,  that 
they  are  permitted  in  some  degree  to  follow  the  bent  of  their 
inclinations.  It  was  the  main  inducement  of  Mr.  Webster  in  re 
turning  to  political  life,  that  the  cessation  of  the  coarse  conflicts 
of  party  warfare  seemed  to  hold  out  some  hope  that  statesman 
ship  of  a  higher  order,  an  impartial  study  of  the  great  interests 
of  the  country,  and  a  policy  aiming  to  promote  the  development 
of  its  vast  natural  resources,  might  be  called  into  action. 

Although  the  domestic  politics  of  the  United  States  were  in 
a  condition  of  repose,  the  politics  of  Europe  at  this  time  were 
disturbed  and  anxious.  Revolutions  had  within  a  few  years 
broken  out  in  Naples,  Piedmont,  and  Spain ;  while  in  Greece  a 
highly  interesting  struggle  was  in  progress,  between  the  Chris- 

VOL.  i.  g 


Ixxiv      BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

tian  population  of  that  country  and  the  government  of  their 
Ottoman  oppressors.  At  an  early  period  of  this  contest,  it  had 
attracted  much  notice  in  the  United  States.  A  correspondence 
had  been  opened  between  an  accredited  committee  of  the  Gre 
cian  patriots  sitting  at  Paris,  with  the  celebrated  Koray  at  their 
head,  and  friends  of  the  cause  of  Greece  in  this  country ;  *  and 
a  formal  appeal  had  been  made  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  by  the  Messenian  Senate  of  Kalamata,  the  first  revolu 
tionary  congress  which  assembled  in  Greece.  President  Monroe, 
both  in  his  annual  message  of  December,  1822,  arid  in  that  of 
1823,  had  expressed  respect  and  sympathy  for  their  cause.  The 
attention  of  Congress  being  thus  called  to  the  subject,  Mr.  Web 
ster  thought  it  a  favorable  opportunity  to  speak  an  emphatic 
word,  from  a  quarter  whence  it  would  be  respected,  in  favor  of 
those  principles  of  rational  liberty  and  enlightened  progress 
which  were  seeking  to  extend  themselves  in  Europe.  As  the 
great  strength  of  the  Grecian  patriots  was  to  be  derived,  not  from 
the  aid  of  the  governments  of  Christendom,  but  from  the  public 
opinion  and  the  sympathy  of  the  civilized  world,  he  felt  that 
they  had  a  peculiar  right  to  expect  some  demonstration  of  friend 
ly  feeling  from  the  only  powerful  republican  state.  He  was 
also  evidently  willing  to  embrace  the  opportunity  of  entering  an 
American  protest  against  the  doctrines  which  had  been  promul 
gated  in  the  manifestoes  of  the  recent  congresses  of  the  Euro 
pean  sovereigns. 

Till  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  it  had  been  the  cus 
tom  of  the  two  houses  to  return  answers  to  the  annual  messages 
of  the  President.  These  answers  furnished  Congress  with  the 
means  of  responding  to  the  executive  suggestions.  As  much 
time  was  often  consumed  in  debating  these  answers,  (a  consump 
tion  of  time  not  directly  leading  to  any  legislative  result,)  and  as 
differences  in  opinion  between  Congress  and  the  executive,  if 
they  existed,  were  thus  prematurely  developed,  it  was  thought 
a  matter  of  convenience,  when  Mr.  Jefferson  came  into  power, 
to  depart  from  the  usage.  But  though  attended  with  evils,  it 
had  its  advantages.  The  opportunity  of  general  political  debate, 
under  a  government  like  ours,  if  not  furnished,  will  be  taken. 
The  constituencies  look  to  their  representatives  to  discuss  pub- 

*  See  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XVII.  p.  414. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         Ixxv 

lie  questions.  It  will  perhaps  be  found,  on  comparing  the  pro 
ceedings  of  Congress  at  the  present  day  with  what  they  were 
fifty  years  ago,  that,  although  the  general  debate  on  the  answer 
to  the  President's  message  has  been  retrenched,  there  is  in  the 
course  of  the  session  quite  as  much  discussion  of  topics  inciden 
tally  brought  in,  and  often  to  the  serious  obstruction  of  the  public 
business,  at  the  advanced  stages  of  the  session. 

Whatever  maybe  thought  of  this  as  a  general  principle,  Pres 
ident  Monroe,  as  we  have  seen,  having  in  two  successive  an 
nual  messages  called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  this  subject, 
Mr.  Webster,  by  way  of  response  to  these  allusions,  at  an  early 
period  of  the  session  offered  the  following  resolution  in  the 
House  of  Representatives :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  provision  ought  to  be  made  by  law  for  defraying  the 
expense  incident  to  the  appointment  of  an  agent  or  commissioner  to 
Greece,  whenever  the  President  shall  deem  it  expedient  to  make  such 
appointment." 

His  speech  in  support  of  this  resolution  was  delivered  on  the 
19th  of  January,  1824,  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  audience, 
brought  together  by  the  interesting  nature  of  the  subject  and  by 
the  fame  of  the  speaker,  now  returned,  after  six  years'  absence, 
to  the  field  where  he  had  gathered  early  laurels,  and  to  which 
he  had  now  come  back  with  greatly  augmented  reputation. 
The  public  expectation  was  highly  excited ;  and  it  is  but  little 
to  say,  that  it  was  entirely  fulfilled.  The  speech  was  conceived 
and  executed  with  rare  felicity ;  and  was  as  remarkable  for  what 
it  did  not,  as  for  what  it  did  contain.  To  a  subject  on  which 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  avoid  a  certain  strain  of  classical 
sentiment,  Mr.  Webster  brought  a  chastened  taste  and  a  severe 
logic.  He  indulged  in  no  ad  captandum  reference  to  the  topics 
which  lay  most  obviously  in  his  way.  A  single  allusion  to 
Greece,  as  the  mistress  of  the  world  in  letters  and  arts,  found  an 
appropriate  place  in  the  exordium.  But  he  neither  rhapsodized 
about  the  ancients,  nor  denounced  the  Turks,  nor  overflowed 
with  Americanism.  He  treated,  in  a  statesmanlike  manner, 
what  he  justly  called  "the  great  political  question  of  the  age," 
the  question  "between  absolute  and  regulated  governments," 
and  the  duty  of  the  United  States  on  fitting  occasions  to  let 
their  voice  be  heard  on  this  question.  He  concisely  reviewed 


Ixxvi       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

the  doctrines  of  the  Continental  sovereigns,  as  set  forth  in 
what  has  been  called  "  the  Holy  Alliance,"  and  in  the  manifes 
toes  of  several  successive  congresses.  He  pointed  out  the  in 
consistency  of  these  principles  with  those  of  self-government 
and  national  independence,  and  the  duty  of  the  United  States 
to  declare  their  sentiments  in  support  of  the  latter.  He  showed 
that  such  a  declaration  was  inconsistent  with  no  principle  of 
public  law,  and  forbidden  by  no  prudential  consideration.  He 
briefly  sketched  the  history  of  the  Greek  revolution ;  and  hav 
ing  shown  that  his  proposal  was  a  pacific  measure,  both  as 
regards  the  Turkish  government  and  the  European  allies,  he 
took  leave  of  the  subject  with  a  few  manly  words  of  sympathy 
for  the  Greeks. 

He  was  supported  by  several  leading  members  of  the  House,  — 
by  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Stevenson  of  Virginia,  afterwards  Speaker  of 
the  House  and  Minister  to  England,  and  by  General  Houston  of 
Tennessee  ;  but  the  subject  lay  too  far  beyond  the  ordinary  range 
of  legislation  ;  it  gained  no  strength  from  the  calculations  of 
any  of  the  Presidential  candidates ;  it  enlisted  none  of  the  great 
local  interests  of  the  country ;  and  it  was  not  of  a  nature  to  be 
pushed  against  opposition  or  indifference.  It  was  probably  with 
little  or  no  expectation  of  carrying  it,  that  the  resolution  was 
moved  by  Mr.  "Webster.  His  object  was  gained  in  the  oppor 
tunity  of  expressing  himself  upon  the  great  political  question  of 
the  day.  His  words  of  encouragement  were  soon  read  in 
every  capital  and  at  every  court  of  Europe,  and  in  every  Con 
tinental  language ;  they  were  received  with  grateful  emotion  in 
Greece.  At  home  the  speech  fully  sustained  Mr.  Webster's 
reputation,  not  merely  for  parliamentary  talent,  but  for  an  ac 
quaintance  with  general  politics,  which  few  public  men  in  the 
United  States  give  themselves  the  trouble  to  acquire,  —  even 
among  those  who  are  selected  to  represent  the  country  abroad. 
In  a  letter  from  Mr.  Jeremiah  Mason,  a  person  whose  judg 
ment  on  a  matter  of  this  kind  was  entitled  to  as  much  respect 
as  that  of  any  man  in  the  community,  this  speech  is  pro 
nounced  "  the  best  sample  of  parliamentary  eloquence  and  states 
manlike  reasoning  which  our  country  can  show." 

It  was  during  this  session,  that  Mr.  Webster  made  his  great 
argument  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  case 
of  Gibbons  and  Ogden,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded.  It 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.       Ixxvii 

must  increase  the  admiration  with  which  this  great  constitu 
tional  effort  is  read,  to  know  that  the  case  came  on  in  court  a 
week  or  ten  days  earlier  than  Mr.  Webster  expected,  and  that 
it  was  late  in  the  afternoon,  after  a  severe  debate  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  on  some  of  the  details  of  the  tariff  bill,  that 
he  received  the  intimation  that  he  must  be  ready  to  go  into 
court  and  argue  the  cause  the  next  morning.  At  this  time  his 
brief  was  not  drawn  out ;  and  the  statement  of  the  argument, 
the  selecting  of  the  authorities,  and  the  final  digest  of  his  mate 
rials,  whether  of  reasoning  or  fact,  were  to  be  the  work  of  the 
few  intervening  hours.  It  is  superfluous  to  say  that  there  was 
no  long  space  for  rest  or  sleep ;  though  it  seems  hardly  credible 
that  the  only  specific  premeditation  of  such  an  argument  be 
fore  such  a  tribunal  should  have  been  in  the  stolen  watches  of 
one  night. 

In  the  course  of  this  session  Mr.  Webster,  besides  taking  a 
leading  part  in  the  discussion  of  the  details  of  the  tariff  law  of 
1824,  made  a  carefully  prepared  speech,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Clay,  on 
some  of  the  principles  upon  which  he  had  supported  it.  His  ex 
position  of  the  popular  errors  on  the  subject  of  the  balance  of 
trade  may  be  referred  to  as  a  very  happy  specimen  of  philo 
sophical  reasoning  applied  to  commercial  questions.  Mr.  Web 
ster  did  not  contest  the  constitutional  right  of  Congress  to  lay 
duties  for  the  protection  of  manufactures.  He  opposed  the  bill 
on  grounds  of  expediency,  drawn  from  the  condition  of  the 
country  at  the  time,  and  from  the  unfriendly  bearing  of  some  of 
its  provisions  on  the  navigating  interests.  He  was  the  represent 
ative  of  the  principal  commercial  city  of  New  England.  The 
great  majority  of  his  constituents  were  opposed  to  the  bill ;  one 
member  only  from  Massachusetts  voted  in  its  favor.  The  last 
sentence  of  the  speech  shows  the  general  view  which  he  took 
of  the  provisions  of  the  act  as  a  whole  :  "  There  are  some  parts 
of  this  bill  which  I  highly  approve ;  there  are  others  in  which  I 
should  acquiesce ;  but  those  to  which  I  have  now  stated  my  ob 
jections  appear  to  me  so  destitute  of  all  justice,  so  burdensome 
and  so  dangerous  to  that  interest  which  has  steadily  enriched, 
gallantly  defended,  and  proudly  distinguished  us,  that  nothing 
can  prevail  upon  me  to  give  it  my  support."  This  sentence 
sufficiently  shows  with  how  little  justice  it  was  asserted,  in  1828, 
that  Mr.  Webster  had,  in  1824,  declared  an  uncompromising 


Ixxviii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

hostility  to  all  legislative  provision  for  the  encouragement  and 
protection  of  manufactures. 

No  subject  of  great  popular  interest  came  up  for  debate  in  the 
second  session  of  the  Eighteenth  Congress,  but  the  attention  of 
Mr.  Webster,  as  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  was  as 
siduously  devoted  to  a  subject  of  great  practical  importance; 
brought  forward  entirely  without  ostentation  or  display,  but  in 
ferior  in  interest  to  scarce  any  act  of  legislation  since  the  first 
organization  of  the  government.  We  refer  to  the  act  of  the 
3d  of  March,  1825,  "  more  effectually  to  provide  for  the  punish 
ment  of  certain  crimes  against  the  United  States,  and  for  other 
purposes."  This  chapter  in  the  legislation  of  the  United  States 
had  been  comparatively  overlooked.  The  original  act  of  the 
30th  of  April,  1790,  "for  the  punishment  of  certain  crimes 
against  the  United  States,"  deserves,  in  common  with  much  of 
the  legislation  of  the  First  Congress,  the  praise  of  great  sagacity 
and  foresight  in  anticipating  the  wants  and  the  operation  of  the 
new  system  of  government.  Still,  however,  there  was  a  class  of 
cases,  arising  out  of  the  complex  nature  of  our  system,  and  the 
twofold  jurisdiction  existing  in  the  United  States,  which,  being 
entirely  novel  in  the  history  of  other  governments,  was  scarcely 
to  be  provided  for  in  advance.  The  analysis  of  the  English 
constitution  here  failed  the  able  men  upon  whom  it  devolved 
to  put  the  new  system  of  government  in  operation.  It  is  to 
be  wondered  at,  not  that  some  things  were  overlooked,  but  that 
so  many  were  provided  for. 

Of  the  cases  left  thus  unprovided  for,  more  perhaps  were  to  be 
found  in  the  judiciary  department  than  in  any  other.  Many 
crimes  committed  on  shipboard,  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of 
any  State,  or  in  places  within  the  Union  excepted  from  State 
jurisdiction,  were  unprovided  for.  Statutes  had  been  enacted 
from  time  to  time  to  supply  these  deficiencies ;  but  the  subject 
does  not  appear  at  any  time  to  have  attracted  the  special  atten 
tion  of  any  one  whose  professional  knowledge  and  weight  of 
character  qualified  him  to  propose  a  remedy.  It  was  at  length 
taken  up  by  Mr.  Webster,  in  the  second  session  of  the  Eigh 
teenth  Congress.  It  fell  appropriately  within  the  sphere  of  the 
Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  of  which  he  was  chairman ;  and  his 
own  extensive  practice  in  the  courts  both  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  separate  States  had  made  him  well  acquainted  with 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      Lxxix 

the  defects  of  the  existing  laws.  He  accordingly  drew  up  what 
finally  passed  the  two  houses,  as  the  sixty-fifth  chapter  of  the 
laws  of  the  second  session  of  the  Eighteenth  Congress,  and 
procured  the  assent  of  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  to  report 
it  to  the  House.  Some  amendments  of  no  great  moment  were 
made  to  it  on  its  passage,  partly  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  himself,  and  partly  on  the  suggestion  of  other  members  of 
the  House.  As  it  finally  passed,  in  twenty-six  sections,  it  cov 
ered  all  the  cases  which  had  occurred  in  the  thirty-five  years 
which  had  elapsed  since  the  law  of  1790  was  enacted;  and 
it  amounted  to  a  brief,  but  comprehensive,  code  of  the  criminal 
jurisprudence  of  the  United  States,  as  distinct  from  that  of 
the  separate  States. 

It  was  Mr.  Webster's  object  in  this  statute,  not  to  enact  theo 
retical  reforms,  but  to  remedy  practical  evils ;  to  make  provision 
for  crimes  which,  for  want  of  jurisdiction,  had  hitherto  gone  un 
punished.  It  was  objected  to  the  bill,  on  its  passage  through 
the  House,  that  it  created  a  considerable  number  of  capital 
offences.  But  these  were  already,  in  every  case,  capital  offences 
either  at  common  law  or  by  the  criminal  law  of  the  States, 
whenever  the  State  tribunals  were  competent  to  take  cogni 
zance  of  them.  It  was  the  effect  of  Mr.  Webster's  act,  not  to 
create  new  offences,  but  to  bring  within  the  reach  of  a  proper 
tribunal  crimes  recognized  as  such  by  all  the  codes  of  law,  but 
which  had  hitherto  escaped  with  impunity  between  separate 
jurisdictions.  The  bill  was  received  with  great  favor  by  the 
House.  Mr.  Buchanan  said  that  he  highly  approved  its  general 
features.  "  It  was  a  disgrace,"  he  added,  "  to  our  system  of 
laws,  that  no  provision  had  ever  been  made  for  the  punishment 
of  the  crimes  which  it  embraced,  when  committed  in  places 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States."  An  eloquent  argu 
ment  was  made  by  Mr.  Livingston  of  Louisiana  in  favor  of 
substituting  lower  penalties  for  capital  punishment,  but  he 
failed  to  satisfy  the  House  of  the  expediency  of  so  great  a  revo 
lution  in  our  criminal  jurisprudence.  Some  slight  modifications 
of  the  bill  were  conceded  to  the  sensitiveness  of  those  who  ap 
prehended  encroachment  on  State  jurisdiction ;  but  it  passed 
substantially  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  reported  by  Mr.  Web 
ster.  Twenty-seven  years'  experience  have  shown  it  to  be  one 
of  the  most  valuable  laws  in  the  statute-book. 


Ixxx        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

At  this  session  of  Congress  the  election  of  a  President  of  the 
United  States  devolved  upon  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
default  of  a  popular  choice.  The  votes  of  the  electoral  colleges 
were  ninety-nine  for  General  Jackson,  eighty-four  for  Mr.  Adams, 
forty-one  for  Mr.  Crawford,  and  thirty-seven  for  Mr.  Clay.  This 
was  the  second  time  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  in 
1789,  that  such  an  event  had  occurred.  The  other  case  was  in 
1801,  and  under  the  Constitution  in  its  original  form,  which 
required  the  electoral  colleges  to  vote  for  two  persons,  without 
designating  which  of  the  two  was  to  be  President,  and  which 
Vice-President,  the  choice  between  the  two  to  be  decided  by 
plurality.  The  Republican  candidates,  Thomas  Jefferson  and 
Aaron  Burr,  having  received  each  an  equal  number  of  votes,  it 
devolved  upon  the  House  of  Representatives  to  designate  one 
of  them  as  President.  The  Constitution  was  immediately 
amended  so  as  to  require  the  candidates  for  the  two  offices  to 
be  designated  as  such  in  the  electoral  colleges ;  so  that  precisely 
such  a  case  as  that  of  1801  can  never  recur.  In  1824,  however, 
no  person  having  received  a  majority  of  all  the  votes,  it  became 
necessary  for  the  House  to  choose  a  President  from  among  the 
three  candidates  having  the  highest  number.  On  these  occa 
sions  the  House  votes,  not  per  capita,  but  by  States,  the  delega 
tion  of  each  State  choosing  its  teller.  Mr.  Webster  was  ap 
pointed  teller  for  the  Massachusetts  delegation.  The  number 
of  States  was  twenty-four,  and  the  tellers  were  seated  in  parties 
of  twelve  at  two  tables.  Mr.  Webster  was  appointed  by  the 
tellers  at  one  of  the  tables  to  announce  the  result  of  the  ballot 
ing  ;  Mr.  Randolph  was  appointed  to  the  same  service  at  the 
other  table.  The  result  was  declared  to  be,  for  Mr.  Adams 
thirteen  votes,  for  General  Jackson  seven,  and  for  Mr.  Crawford 
four.  The  votes  of  most  of  the  States  were  matters  of  con 
fident  calculation  beforehand;  those  of  Maryland  and  New 
York  were  in  some  degree  doubtful.  The  former  was  supposed 
to  depend  upon  the  decision  of  Mr.  Warfield ;  the  latter  on  that 
of  General  Van  Rensselaer.  Mr.  Webster  possessed  the  political 
confidence  of  both  these  gentlemen;  and  is  believed  to  have 
exerted  a  decisive  influence  in  leading  them  to  vote  for  Mr. 
Adams. 

Mr.  Webster  had  been  elected  to  the  Nineteenth  Congress  in 
tne  autumn  of  1824,  by  a  vote  of  four  thousand  nine  hundred 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.       kxxi 

and  ninety  out  of  five  thousand  votes  cast,  the  nearest  approach 
to  unanimity  in  a  Congressional  election,  perhaps,  that  ever  took 
place.  The  session  which  began  in  December,  1825,  was  of 
course  the  first  session  under  Mr.  Adams's  administration.  The 
brief  armistice  in  party  warfare  which  existed  under  Mr.  Monroe 
was  over.  The  friends  of  General  Jackson  en  masse,  most  of 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Crawford,  and  a  portion  of  those  of  Mr.  Clay, 
joined  in  a  violent  opposition  to  the  new  administration.  It 
would  be  impossible  in  this  place  to  unfold  the  griefs,  the  inter 
ests,  the  projects,  the  jealousies,  and  the  mutual  struggles,  of 
the  leaders  and  the  factions,  who,  with  no  community  of  politi 
cal  principle,  entered  into  this  warfare.  The  absence  of  any 
well-defined  division  of  parties,  like  that  which  had  formerly 
existed,  gave  wide  scope  to  personal  intrigue  and  sectional  pref 
erence.  Although,  estimated  in  reference  to  individual  suffrages, 
Mr.  Adams  had  received  a  popular  majority;  and  although  he 
was  selected  from  the  three  highest  candidates  by  an  absolute 
majority  of  the  States  voting  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  by  a  very  large  plurality  over  both  his  competitors,  yet,  as 
General  Jackson  had  received  a  small  plurality  of  votes  in  the 
electoral  colleges  (but  a  little  more,  however,  than  a  third  part 
of  the  entire  electoral  vote),  he  stood  before  the  masses  as  a  can 
didate  wrongfully  deprived  of  the  place  to  which  he  was  designat 
ed  by  the  popular  choice.  Great  sensibility  was  evinced  at  this 
defeat  of  the  "  Will  of  the  People  " ;  and  none  seemed  to  feel 
the  wrong  more  than  a  portion  of  the  friends  of  that  one  of  the 
three  candidates  who  had  received  the  smallest  vote,  but  whom 
there  had  been,  nevertheless,  a  confident  hope  of  electing  in  the 
House.  The  prejudice  against  Mr.  Adams  arising  from  this 
source  derived  strength  from  the  widely  circulated  calumny  of 
a  corrupt  understanding  between  him  and  Mr.  Clay.  The  bare 
suspicion  of  an  arrangement  between  party  leaders  to  help  each 
other  into  office,  however  groundless  in  point  of  fact,  and  how 
ever  disproved  by  all  the  testimony  which  could  be  brought  to 
bear  on  a  negative  proposition,  was  sufficient  seriously  to  affect 
the  popularity  of  both  parties. 

Great  talent,  the  amplest  civil  experience,  and  the  purest  pa 
triotism  are  an  inadequate  basis  of  strength  for  an  administra 
tion.  If  the  capricious  and  ill-defined  element  of  what  is  called 
popularity  is  wanting,  all  else  is  of  little  avail.  Mr.  Adams'a 


Ixxxii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

administration  was  conducted  with  the  highest  ability  ;  it  was 
incorruptible ;  it  was  frugal ;  it  was  tolerant  of  opponents  to  its 
own  injury.  With  the  exception  of  half  a  dozen  editors  of 
newspapers  warmly  opposed  to  the  administration,  from  whom 
the  trifling  privilege  of  printing  the  laws  was  withdrawn,  no  one 
was  removed  from  office  for  political  opinion.  But  the  admin 
istration  was  unpopular,  and  was  doomed  from  its  formation. 
It  was  supported  by  very  able  men  in  both  houses  of  Congress, 
and  of  these  Mr.  Webster  was  by  all  acknowledgment  the 
chief.  But  it  failed  to  command  the  confidence  of  a  numerical 
majority  of  the  people. 

The  leading  measure  of  the  first  session  of  the  Nineteenth 
Congress  was  the  Congress  of  Panama.  Mr.  Adams  had  an 
nounced  in  his  message  at  the  commencement  of  the  session, 
that  an  invitation  to  the  congress  had  been  accepted,  and  that 
"ministers  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  would  be  com 
missioned  to  attend  its  deliberations."  In  announcing  this 
purpose,  it  is  probable  that  the  President  regarded  himself  as 
within  the  ordinary  limits  of  executive  discretion.  The  power 
of  nominating  ambassadors  and  other  public  ministers  is  given 
by  the  Constitution  to  the  President  alone.  No  laws  for  the 
establishment  of  any  particular  missions  have  ever  been  passed, 
nor  has  any  control  been  exercised  over  them  by  Congress  be 
yond  determining  the  salaries  of  the  ministers  of  different  ranks, 
and  making  the  annual  appropriations  for  their  payment.  The 
executive  is  manifestly  the  sole  depositary  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  foreign  relations  of  the  country  which  is  necessary  to  deter 
mine  what  missions  ought  to  be  established.  Notwithstanding 
these  obvious  considerations  and  constitutional  principles,  the 
novel  and  anomalous  character  of  the  proposed  Congress  afford 
ed  a  temptation  to  the  opposition  too  strong  to  be  resisted. 
The  President's  announcement  formed  the  great  point  of  attack 
during  the  first  session  of  the  new  Congress.  The  confirmation 
of  the  ministers  was  vigorously  resisted  in  the  Senate,  and  the 
resolution  declaring  the  expediency  of  making  the  requisite  ap 
propriations  as  strenuously  opposed  in  the  House.  The  mis 
chiefs  likely  to  result  from  the  public  discussion  of  the  measure 
showed  the  wisdom  of  those  constitutional  provisions  on  which 
the  President  had  acted.  The  opposition,  in  denying  that  the 
executive  control  of  foreign  relations  is  exclusive,  showed  at  any 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.    Ixxxiii 

rate  that  it  ought  to  be,  at  least  as  far  as  it  is  made  so  by  the 
Constitution.  After  a  lapse  of  twenty-six  years,  we  can 
scarcely  believe  that  any  doubt  should  have  existed,  on  the 
part  of  men  of  judgment  and  discretion,  that  sound  policy  re 
quired  that  the  United  States  should  be  present  at  such  a  gen 
eral  conference  of  the  American  powers ;  if  for  no  other  reason, 
to  observe  their  movements.  But  all  the  motives  for  such  a 
course  could  not  be  avowed,  and  of  those  that  could,  a  part  of 
the  force  was  weakened  by  the  avowal.  The  influence  of  the 
United  States  was  impaired  in  order  that  the  administration 
might  be  distressed. 

The  subject  was  discussed  with  great  ability  in  both  houses. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  senatorial  debate  was  with  closed 
doors.  Mr.  Webster's  speech  in  the  House  is  far  the  ablest  of 
those  published.  It  raised  the  question  from  the  wretched 
level  of  party  politics  to  the  elevation  of  real  statesmanship. 
It  discussed  the  constitutional  question  with  a  clearness  and 
power  which  make  us  wonder  that  it  was  ever  raised ;  and  it 
unfolded  the  true  nature  of  the  proposed  congress,  as  viewed 
in  the  light  of  the  public  law.  A  very  important  topic  of  the 
speech  was  an  explanation  of  the  declaration  of  President 
Monroe,  in  his  annual  message  of  1823,  against  the  interposi 
tion  of  the  governments  of  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
Spain  to  resubjugate  her  former  colonial  possessions  on  this 
continent.  Mr.  Webster  pointed  out  the  circumstances  which 
warranted  at  the  time  the  opinion  that  such  interposition 
might  be  attempted;  and  he  stated  the  important  fact,  not 
before  known,  that  the  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
to  resist  it  was  deliberately  and  unanimously  formed  by  Mr. 
Monroe's  cabinet,  consisting  at  that  time  of  Messrs.  Adams, 
Crawford,  Calhoun,  Southard,  and  Wirt.  The  principles  as 
sumed  in  the  debate  on  the  Panama  mission  by  the  friends  of 
Messrs.  Crawford  and  Calhoun  were  greatly  at  variance  with 
the  spirit  and  tendency  of  the  declaration,  as  they  were  with 
what  has  more  recently  been  regarded  as  the  true  Democratic 
doctrine  in  reference  to  the  relations  of  the  United  States  to 
her  sister  republics  on  this  continent. 

The  speech  on  the  Panama  question  was  the  most  consider 
able  effort  made  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Nineteenth  Congress. 
In  the  interval  of  the  two  sessions,  in  November,  1826,  he  was 


Ixxxiv    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

reflected  with  but  a  show  of  opposition.  The  eulogy  upon 
Adams  and  Jefferson,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  was 
delivered  in  the  month  of  August  of  this  year.  In  the  month 
of  June,  1827,  Mr.  Webster  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  by  a  large  majority  of  the  votes  of  the  two 
houses  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Mills 
of  Northampton,  who  had  filled  that  station  with  great  ability, 
having  declined  being  a  candidate  for  reelection  in  consequence 
of  ill  health. 

The  principal  measure  which  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
two  houses  during  the  first  session  of  the  Twentieth  Congress 
was  the  revision  of  the  tariff.  This  measure  had  its  origin  in 
the  distressed  condition  of  the  woollen  interest,  which  found 
itself  deprived  (partly  by  the  effect  of  the  repeal  of  the  duty  on 
wool  imported  into  Great  Britain)  of  that  measure  of  protec 
tion  which  the  tariff  law  of  1824  was  designed  to  afford.  An 
unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  at  the  last  session  of 
Congress,  to  pass  a  law  exclusively  for  the  relief  of  the  wool 
len  manufacturers ;  but  no  law  having  in  view  the  protection 
of  any  one  great  interest  is  likely  to  be  enacted  by  Con 
gress,  however  called  for  by  the  particular  circumstances  of 
the  case.  At  the  present  session  an  entire  revision  of  the 
tariff  was  attempted.  Political  considerations  unfortunately 
could  not  be  excluded  from  the  arrangements  of  the  bill.  A 
majority  of  the  two  houses  was  in  favor  of  protection ;  but  in 
a  country  so  extensive  as  the  United  States,  and  embracing 
such  a  variety  of  interests,  there  were  different  views  among 
the  friends  of  the  policy  as  to  the  articles  to  be  protected  and 
the  amount  of  protection.  This  diversity  of  opinions  and  sup 
posed  diversity  of  interests  enabled  those  wholly  opposed  to 
the  principle  and  policy  of  protection,  by  uniting  their  votes  on 
questions  of  detail  with  members  who  represented  local  inter 
ests,  to  render  the  bill  objectionable  in  many  parts  to  several  of 
its  friends,  and  to  reduce  them  to  the  alternative  of  either  vot 
ing  against  it,  or  tolerating  more  or  less  which  they  deemed 
inexpedient,  and  even  highly  injurious.  Hence  it  received  the 
name  of  the  "  Bill  of  Abominations." 

The  political  motives  alluded  to  caused  the  bill  to  be  made 
as  acceptable  as  possible  to  Pennsylvania  and  the  other  Middle 
States,  and  as  unfavorable  as  possible  to  the  leading  interests 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      Ixxxv 

of  New  England.  The  depression  of  the  woollen  manufactures 
had  originally  caused  the  revision  of  the  tariff  at  this  session. 
A  heavy  duty  on  the  raw  material  was  one  of  the  features  of 
the  bill.  But  this  was  represented  as  due  to  the  agricultural 
interest.  The  East,  although  it  had  now  become  eminently  a 
manufacturing  region,  was  still  the  seat  of  an  active  commerce, 
and  largely  concerned  in  the  fisheries.  The  duty  on  molasses, 
a  great  article  of  consumption  with  the  mariners  and  fishermen 
of  the  East,  both  in  its  natural  form  and  that  of  cheap  spirits, 
was  doubled ;  but  this,  it  was  said,  was  required  for  the  benefit 
of  the  grain-growers  of  the  Middle  States.  Other  provisions 
of  this  kind  were  introduced  into  the  bill,  in  all  cases  with 
the  assistance  of  the  votes  of  its  opponents,  given  in  such 
a  way  as  to  render  the  bill  as  unpalatable  as  possible  to 
the  Northeastern  manufacturers.  Mr.  Webster  addressed  the 
Senate,  while  the  bill  was  before  that  body,  exposing  the  ob 
jectionable  features  to  which  we  have  alluded.  Believing, 
however,  that  the  great  article  of  woollens  required  the  protec 
tion  given  it  by  the  bill,  and  regarding  the  general  system  of 
protection  as  the  established  policy  of  the  country  and  of  the 
government,  and  feeling  that  the  capital  which  had  been  in 
vited  into  manufactures  by  former  acts  of  legislation  was  now 
entitled  to  be  sustained  against  the  glut  of  foreign  markets, 
fraudulent  invoices,  and  the  competition  of  foreign  labor  work 
ing  at  starvation  wages,  he  gave  his  vote  for  the  bill,  and  has 
ever  since  supported  the  policy  of  moderate  protection.  He 
has  been  accused  of  inconsistency  in  this  respect ;  and  by  none 
more  earnestly  than  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  was 
one  of  those  influential  statesmen  of  the  South  by  whom,  in  the 
Fourteenth  Congress,  the  foundation  of  a  protective  tariff  was 
laid  on  the  corner-stone  of  the  square-yard  duty  on  domestic 
cotton  fabrics.  But  he  has  been  sustained  by  the  great  ma 
jority  of  his  constituents  and  of  the  people  of  the  Northern, 
Middle,  and  Northwestern  States;  and  should  the  prospects 
of  success  be  fulfilled  with  which  manufactures  have  been 
attempted  at  the  South,  there  is  little  doubt  that  she  will  at 
length  perceive  that  her  own  interest  would  be  promoted  by 
upholding  the  same  policy. 

When  the  speech  of  Mr.  Webster  of  1824,  in  which  he  as 
signed  his  reasons  for  voting  against  the  tariff  law  of  that  year, 

VOL.  i.  h 


Ixxxvi    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBS1ER. 

is  carefully  compared  with  his  speech  of  1828,  just  referred  to. 
it  will  be  found  that  there  is  no  other  diversity  than  that  which 
was  induced  by  the  change  in  the  state  of  the  country  itself  in 
reference  to  its  manufacturing  interests,  and  by  the  course  pur 
sued  in  reference  to  the  details  of  the  bill  by  those  opposed  to 
protection  in  toto.  It  is  the  best  proof  of  this,  that,  in  the  for 
mer  edition  of  Mr.  Webster's  works,  the  two  speeches  were, 
for  more  easy  comparison,  placed  side  by  side. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.    Ixxxvii 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Election  of  General  Jackson.  —  Debate  on  Foot's  Resolution.  —  Subject  }f  the 
Resolution,  and  Objects  of  its  Mover.  —  Mr.  Hayne's  First  Speech.  —  Mr.  Webster's 
original  Participation  in  the  Debate  unpremeditated.  —  His  First  Speech.  —  Reply 
of  Mr.  Hayne  with  increased  Asperity.  — Mr.  Webster's  Great  Speech.  —  Its  Three 
fold  Object.  —  Description  of  the  Manner  of  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Delivery  of  this 
Speech,  from  Mr.  March's  "  Reminiscences  of  Congress."  —  Reception  of  his 
Speech  throughout  the  Country.  —  The  Dinner  at  New  York.  —  Chancellor  Kent's 
Remarks.  —  Final  Disposal  of  Foot's  Resolution. —  Report  of  Mr.  Webster's  Speech. 
—  Mr.  Healey's  Painting. 

IN  the  interval  between  the  two  sessions  of  the  Twentieth 
Congress,  the  Presidential  election  was  decided.  Mr.  Adams 
and  General  Jackson  were  the  opposing  candidates;  and  the 
latter  was  chosen  by  a  large  popular  majority.  This  result  was 
brought  about  by  the  active  cooperation  with  General  Jack 
son's  original  supporters  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  and 
many  of  the  friends  of  the  other  candidates  of  1824.  This  co 
operation  implied  the  combination  of  the  most  discordant  ma 
terials,  which  did  not,  however,  prevent  its  members  during  the 
canvass  from  heaping  the  bitterest  reproaches  upon  Mr.  Adams's 
administration  for  receiving  the  support  of  Mr.  Clay.  That 
there  was  no  cordiality  among  the  component  elements  of  the 
party  by  which  General  Jackson  was  elevated  to  the  chair  was 
soon  quite  apparent. 

The  first  session  of  the  Twenty-first  Congress,  that  of  1829- 
30,  is  rendered  memorable  in  the  history  of  Mr.  "Webster,  as 
well  as  in  the  parliamentary  history  of  the  country,  by  what 
has  been  called  the  debate  on  Foot's  resolution,  in  which  Mr. 
Webster  delivered  the  speech  which  is  usually  regarded  as  his 
ablest,  and  which  may  probably  with  truth  be  pronounced  the 
most  celebrated  speech  ever  delivered  in  Congress.  The  great 
importance  of  this  effort  will  no  doubt  be  considered  as  a  suffi 
cient  reason  for  relating  somewhat  in  detail  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  was  made. 

The  debate  arose  in  the  following  manner. 

On  the  29th  of  December,  1829,  Mr.  Foot,  one  of  the  Senators 
from  Connecticut,  moved  the  following  resolution :  — 


Ixxxviii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL,      i?,BSTER. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands  be  instructed  to  in 
quire  and  report  the  quantity  of  public  lands  remaining  unsold  within 
each  State  and  Territory,  and  whether  it  be  expedient  to  limit  for  a  cer 
tain  period  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  to  such  lands  only  as  have  here 
tofore  been  offered  for  sale,  and  are  now  subject  to  entry  at  the  minimum 
price.  And,  also,  whether  the  office  of  Surveyor-General,  and  some  of  the 
land  offices,  may  not  be  abolished  without  detriment  to  the  public  interest." 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that,  in  bringing  forward  this 
resolution,  Mr.  Foot  acted  in  concert  with  any  other  member  of 
the  Senate.  When  it  came  up  for  consideration  the  next  day, 
the  mover  stated  that  he  had  been  induced  to  offer  the  resolu 
tion  from  having  at  the  last  session  examined  the  report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  the  Land  Office,  from  which  it  appeared  that 
the  quantity  of  land  remaining  unsold  at  the  minimum  price  of  one 
dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  acre  exceeded  seventy-two  mil 
lions  of  acres ;  while  it  appeared  from  the  commissioner's  report 
at  this  session,  that  the  annual  demand  was  not  likely  to  exceed 
a  million  of  acres  at  present,  although  of  course  it  might  be  ex 
pected  somewhat  to  increase  with  the  growth  of  the  population. 

This  resolution,  though  one  of  inquiry  only,  was  resisted  It 
was  represented  by  Mr.  Benton  of  Missouri  as  a  resolution  to 
inquire  into  the  expediency  of  committing  a  great  injury  upon 
the  new  States  of  the  West.  Mr.  Holmes  of  Maine  supported 
the  resolution,  as  one  of  inquiry  into  an  important  subject.  Mr. 
Foot  disclaimed  every  purpose  unfriendly  to  the  West,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  conversation  (in  which  Mr.  Webster  took  no 
part),  it  was  agreed  that  the  consideration  of  the  resolution 
should  be  postponed  to  the  llth  of  January,  and  made  the 
special  order  of  the  day  for  that  day.  In  this  manner,  it  often 
happens  that  a  resolution  of  inquiry  on  a  business  question  of 
no  urgent  importance,  intended  to  have  no  political  bearing,  and 
brought  forward  without  concert  with  others  by  an  individual, 
becomes  by  delay  the  theme  of  impassioned  debates  for  weeks 
and  months,  to  the  serious  obstruction  of  the  real  business  of 
Congress.  In  the  present  case,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  loss 
of  the  public  time  thus  occasioned  was  amply  made  up,  by  the 
importance  of  the  speech  which  has  given  celebrity  to  the  debate. 

The  consideration  of  Mr.  Foot's  resolution  was  not  resumed 
till  Wednesday,  the  13th  of  January,  when  it  was  opposed  by 
several  Western  gentlemen.  It  was  next  taken  up  on  Monday, 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,    kxxix 

the  18th,  when  Mr.  Benton  of  Missouri  spoke  at  length  against 
it.  On  Tuesday,  the  19th,  Mr.  Holmes  of  Maine  replied  at  no 
great  length  to  Mr.  Benton.  Other  members  took  some  part 
in  the  debate,  and  then  Mr.  Hayne  of  South  Carolina  com 
menced  a  speech,  which  occupied  the  rest  of  the  day.  Mr. 
Hayne  was  one  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Senate.  He 
came  forward  in  his  native  State  in  1814,  when  hardly  of  age, 
with  great  dclat,  filled  in  rapid  succession  responsible  offices,  and 
came  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  1823,  with  a  repu 
tation  already  brilliant,  and  rapidly  increasing.  He  was  active 
and  diligent  in  business,  fluent,  graceful,  and  persuasive  as  a 
debater;  of  a  sanguine  and  self-relying  temper ;  shrinking  from 
no  antagonist,  and  disposed  to  take  the  part  of  a  champion. 

Mr.  Webster,  up  to  this  time,  had  not  participated  in  the  de 
bate,  which  had  in  fact  been  rather  a  pointless  affair,  and  was 
dragging  its  slow  length  through  the  Senate,  no  one  knew 
exactly  to  what  purpose.  It  had  as  yet  assumed  no  character 
in  which  it  invited  or  required  his  attention.  He  was  much  en 
gaged  at  the  time  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
The  important  case  of  John  Jacob  Astor  and  the  State  of  New 
York,  in  which  he  was  of  counsel,  was  to  come  on  for  argument 
on  the  20th  of  January ;  and  on  that  day  the  argument  of  the 
case  was  in  fact  commenced.*  Leaving  the  court-room  when 
the  court  adjourned  on  Tuesday,  the  19th,  Mr.  Webster  came 
into  the  Senate  in  season  to  hear  the  greater  part  of  Mr.  Hayne's 
speech ;  and  it  was  suggested  to  him  by  several  friends,  and 
among  others  by  Mr.  Bell  of  New  Hampshire,  Mr.  Chambers 
of  Maryland,  and  his  colleague,  Mr.  Silsbee,  that  an  immediate 
answer  to  Mr.  Hayne  was  due  from  him.  The  line  of  discus 
sion  pursued  by  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  was  such  as 
to  require,  if  not  to  provoke,  an  immediate  answer  from  the 
North.  Mr.  Webster  accordingly  rose  when  Mr.  Hayne  took 
his  seat,  but  gave  way  to  a  motion  for  adjournment  from  Mr. 
Benton.  These  circumstances  will  sufficiently  show  how  en 
tirely  without  premeditation,  and  with  what  preoccupation  by 
other  trains  of  thought,  Mr.  Webster  was  led  into  this  great  in 
tellectual  conflict. 

He  appeared  in  the  Senate  the  next  morning,  Wednesday, 

*  This  case  is  known  as  that  of  Carver's  Lessees  against  J  dm  Jacob  Astor, 
and  is  reported  in  4  Peters,  1. 
h* 


xc  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

January  20th,  and  Mr.  Foot's  resolution,  being  called  up,  was 
modified,  on  the  suggestion  of  Messrs.  Sprague  of  Maine  and 
Woodbury  of  New  Hampshire,  by  adding  the  following  clause :  — 

"  Or  whether  it  be  expedient  to  adopt  measures  to  hasten  the  sales 
and  extend  more  rapidly  the  surveys  of  the  public  lands." 

Mr.  Webster  immediately  proceeded  with  the  debate.  No 
elaborate  preparation,  of  course,  could  have  been  made  by  him, 
as  the  speech  of  Mr.  Hayne,  to  which  his  reply  was  mainly  di 
rected,  was  delivered  the  day  before.  He  vindicated  the  gov 
ernment,  under  its  successive  administrations,  from  the  general 
charge  of  having  managed  the  public  lands  in  a  spirit  of  hostil 
ity  to  the  Western  States.  He  particularly  defended  New  Eng 
land  against  the  accusation  of  hostility  to  the  West.  A  passage 
in  this  part  of  his  speech,  contrasting  Ohio  as  she  was  in  1794 
with  the  Ohio  of  1830,  will  compare  advantageously  with  any 
thing  in  these  volumes.  In  speaking  of  the  settlement  of  the 
West,  Mr.  Webster  introduced  with  just  commendation  the 
honored  name  of  Nathan  Dane,  as  the  author  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787,  for  the  organization  and  government  of  the  territory 
northwest  of  the  Ohio.  He  maintained  that  every  measure  of 
legislation  beneficial  to  the  West  had  been  carried  in  Congress 
by  the  aid  of  New  England  votes,  and  he  closed  by  an  allusion 
to  his  own  course  as  uniformly  friendly  to  that  part  of  the 
Union.  Mr.  Benton  followed  Mr.  Webster,  and  commenced 
a  speech  in  reply. 

The  next  day,  Thursday,  the  21st,  the  subject  again  came  up, 
and  it  was  now  evident  that  the  debate  had  put  on  a  new 
character.  Its  real  interest  and  importance  were  felt  to  be  com 
mencing.  Mr.  Chambers  expressed  the  hope  that  the  Senate 
would  consent  to  postpone  the  further  consideration  of  the  reso 
lution  till  the  next  Monday,  as  Mr.  Webster,  who  had  engaged 
in  the  discussion  and  wished  to  be  present  when  it  should  be 
resumed,  had  pressing  engagements  out  of  the  house,  and  could 
not  conveniently  give  his  attendance  in  the  Senate  before  Mon 
day.*  Mr.  Hayne  said  "  he  saw  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  in  his  seat,  and  presumed  he  could  make  an  arrange 
ment  which  would  enable  him  to  be  present  here,  during  the 

*  Mr.  Chambers  referred  to  the  case  in  court  just  mentioned,  in  which  Mr. 
Webster  was  engaged,  and  in  which  the  argument  had  already  begun. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  Xci 

discussion  to-day.  He  was  unwilling  that  this  subject  should 
be  postponed  before  he  had  an  opportunity  of  replying  to  some 
of  the  observations  which  had  fallen  from  that  gentleman  yes 
terday.  He  would  not  deny  that  some  things  had  fallen  from 
him  which  rankled  *  here  (touching  his  breast),  from  which  he 
would  desire  at  once  to  relieve  himself.  The  gentleman  had 
discharged  his  fire  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate.  He  hoped  he 
would  now  afford  him  an  opportunity  of  returning  the  shot." 

The  manner  in  which  this  was  said  was  not  such  as  to  soften, 
the  harshness  of  the  sentiment.  It  will  be  difficult,  in  reverting 
to  Mr.  Webster's  speech,  to  find  either  in  its  substance  or  spirit 
any  adequate  grounds  for  the  feeling  manifested  by  Mr.  Hayne. 
Nor  would  it  probably  be  easy  in  the  history  of  Congress  to 
find  another  case  in  which  a  similar  act  of  accommodation  in 
the  way  of  postponing  a  subject  has  been  refused,  at  least  on 
such  a  ground.  Mr.  Webster,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Hayne's  remark, 
that  he  wished  without  delay  to  return  his  shot,  said,  "  Let  the 
discussion  proceed ;  I  am  ready  now  to  receive  the  gentleman's 
fire." 

Mr.  Benton  then  addressed  the  Senate  for  about  an  hour,  in 
conclusion  of  the  speech  which  he  had  commenced  the  day  be 
fore.  At  the  close  of  Mr.  Benton's  argument,  Mr.  Bell  of  New 
Hampshire  moved  that  the  further  consideration  of  the  subject 
should  be  postponed  till  Monday,  but  the  motion  was  nega 
tived.  Mr.  Hayne  then  took  the  floor,  and  spoke  for  about  an 
hour  in  reply  to  Mr.  Webster's  remarks  of  the  preceding  day. 
Before  he  had  concluded  his  argument,  the  Senate  adjourned 
till  Monday.  On  that  day,  January  the  25th,  he  spoke  for  two 
hours  and  a  half,  and  completed  his  speech.  Mr.  Webster  im 
mediately  rose  to  reply,  but  the  day  was  far  advanced,  and  he 
yielded  to  a  motion  for  adjournment. 

The  second  speech  of  Mr.  Hayne,  to  which  Mr.  Webster  was 
now  called  upon  to  reply,  was  still  more  strongly  characterized 
than  the  first  with  severity,  not  to  say  bitterness,  towards  the 
Eastern  States.  The  tone  toward  Mr.  Webster  personally  was 
not  courteous.  It  bordered  on  the  offensive.  It  was  difficult 
not  to  find  in  both  of  the  speeches  of  the  Senator  from  South 
Carolina  the  indication  of  a  preconceived  purpose  to  hold  up 

*  Mr.  Hayne  subsequently  disclaimed  having  used  this  word. 


xcii         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

New  England,  and  Mr.  Webster  as  her  most  distinguished  rep 
resentative,  to  public  odium.  In  his  second  speech,  Mr.  Hayne 
reaffirmed  and  urged  those  constitutional  opinions  which  are 
usually  known  as  the  doctrines  of  Nullification ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  assumed  right  of  a  State,  when  she  deems  herself  oppressed 
by  an  unconstitutional  act  of  Congress,  to  declare  by  State  or 
dinance  the  act  of  Congress  null  and  void,  and  discharge  the 
citizens  of  the  State  from  the  duty  of  obedience. 

Such  being  the  character  of  Mr.  Hayne's  speech,  Mr.  Web 
ster  had  tnree  objects  to  accomplish  in  his  answer.  The  first 
was  to  repel  the  personalities  toward  himself,  which  formed  one 
of  the  most  prominent  features  of  Mr.  Hayne's  speech.  This 
object  was  accomplished  by  a  few  retaliatory  strokes,  in  which 
the  severest  sarcasm  was  so  mingled  with  unaffected  good  hu 
mor  and  manly  expostulation,  as  to  carry  captive  the  sympathy 
of  the  audience.  The  vindication  of  the  Eastern  States  gener 
ally,  and  of  Massachusetts  in  particular,  was  the  second  object, 
and  was  pursued  in  a  still  higher  strain.  When  it  was  finished, 
no  one  probably  regretted  more  keenly  than  the  accomplished 
antagonist  the  easy  credence  which  he  had  lent  to  the  purveyors 
of  forgotten  scandal,  some  of  whom  were  present,  and  felt  grate 
ful  for  their  obscurity. 

The  third  and  far  the  more  important  object  with  Mr.  Web 
ster  was  the  constitutional  argument,  in  which  he  asserted  the 
character  of  our  political  system  as  a  government  established 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  contradistinction  to  a 
compact  between  the  separate  States ;  and  exposed  the  fallacy 
of  attempting  to  turn  the  natural  right  of  revolution  against  the 
government  into  a  right  reserved  under  the  Constitution  to  over 
turn  the  government  itself. 

Several  chapters  of  the  interesting  work  of  Mr.  March,  al 
ready  referred  to,*  are  devoted  to  the  subject  of  this  debate ; 
and  we  have  thought  that  we  could  in  no  way  convey  to  the 
reader  so  just  and  distinct  an  impression  of  the  effect  of  Mr. 
Webster's  speech  at  the  time  of  its  delivery,  as  by  borrowing 
largely  from  his  animated  pages. 

"  It  was  on  Tuesday,  January  the  26th,  1830, —  a  day  to  be  hereafter 
for  ever  memorable  in  Senatorial  annals,  —  that  the  Senate  resumed  the 

*  Reminiscences  of  Congress. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        xciii 

consideration  of  Foot's  resolution.  There  never  was  before,  in  the 
city,  an  occasion  of  so  much  excitement.  To  witness  this  great  intel 
lectual  contest,  multitudes  of  strangers  had  for  two  or  three  days  previ 
ous  been  rushing  into  the  city,  and  the  hotels  overflowed.  As  early  as 
9  o'clock  of  this  morning,  crowds  poured  into  the  Capitol,  in  hot  haste ; 
at  12  o'clock,  the  hour  of  meeting,  the  Senate-chamber  —  its  galleries, 
floor,  and  even  lobbies  —  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity.  The  very 
stairways  were  dark  with  men,  who  clung  to  one  another,  like  bees  in  a 
swarm. 

"  The  House  of  Representatives  was  early  deserted.  An  adjournment 
would  have  hardly  made  it  emptier.  The  Speaker,  it  is  true,  retained 
his  chair,  but  no  business  of  moment  was,  or  could  be,  attended  to. 
Members  all  rushed  in  to  hear  Mr.  Webster,  and  no  call  of  the  House  or 
other  parliamentary  proceedings  could  compel  them  back.  The  floor  of 
the  Senate  was  so  densely  crowded,  that  persons  once  in  could  not  get 
out,  nor  change  their  position  ;  in  the  rear  of  the  Vice-Presidential  chair, 
the  crowd  was  particularly  intense.  Dixon  H.  Lewis,  then  a  Repre 
sentative  from  Alabama,  became  wedged  in  here.  From  his  enormous 
size,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  move  without  displacing  a  vast  portion 
of  the  multitude.  Unfortunately,  too,  for  him,  he  was  jammed  in  di 
rectly  behind  the  chair  of  the  Vice-President,  where  he  could  not  see, 
and  hardly  hear,  the  speaker.  By  slow  and  laborious  effort,  pausing 
occasionally  to  breathe,  he  gained  one  of  the  windows,  which,  con 
structed  of  painted  glass,  flank  the  chair  of  the  Vice-President  on  either 
side.  Here  he  paused,  unable  to  make  more  headway.  But  determined 
to  see  Mr.  Webster  as  he  spoke,  with  his  knife  he  made  a  large  hole 
in  one  of  the  panes  of  the  glass ;  which  is  still  visible  as  he  made  it. 
Many  were  so  placed  as  not  to  be  able  to  see  the  speaker  at  all. 

"  The  courtesy  of  Senators  accorded  to  the  fairer  sex  room  on  the 
floor,  —  the  most  gallant  of  them,  their  own  seats.  The  gay  bonnets  and 
brilliant  dresses  threw  a  varied  and  picturesque  beauty  over  the  scene, 
softening  and  embellishing  it. 

"  Seldom,  if  ever,  has  speaker  in  this  or  any  other  country  had  more 
powerful  incentives  to  exertion ;  a  subject,  the  determination  of  which 
involved  the  most  important  interests,  and  even  duration,  of  the  repub 
lic  ;  competitors,  unequalled  in  reputation,  ability,  or  position ;  a  name 
to  make  still  more  glorious,  or  lose  for  ever ;  and  an  audience,  compris 
ing  not  only  persons  of  this  country  most  eminent  in  intellectual  great 
ness,  but  representatives  of  other  nations,  where  the  art  of  eloquence  had 
flourished  for  ages.  All  the  soldier  seeks  in  opportunity  was  here. 

"  Mr.  Webster  perceived,  and  felt  equal  to,  the  destinies  of  the  moment. 
The  very  greatness  of  the  hazard  exhilarated  him.  His  spirits  rose  with 
the  occasion.  He  awaited  the  time  of  onset  with  a  stern  and  impatient 


xciv        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

joy.  He  felt  like  the  war-horse  of  the  Scriptures,  who  'paweth  m 
the  valley,  and  rejoiceth  in  his  strength  :  who  goeth  on  to  meet  the  armed 
men,  —  who  saith  among  the  trumpets,  Ha,  ha !  and  who  smelleth  the 
battle  afar  off,  the  thunder  of  the  captains  and  the  shouting.' 

"  A  confidence  in  his  own  resources,  springing  from  no  vain  estimate 
of  his  power,  but  the  legitimate  offspring  of  previous  severe  mental  dis 
cipline,  sustained  and  excited  him.  He  had  gauged  his  opponents,  his 
subject,  and  himself. 

"  He  was,  too,  at  this  period,  in  the  very  prime  of  manhood.  He  had 
reached  middle  age,  —  an  era  in  the  life  of  man  when  the  faculties, 
physical  or  intellectual,  may  be  supposed  to  attain  their  fullest  organiza 
tion  and  most  perfect  development.  Whatever  there  was  in  him  of  in 
tellectual  energy  and  vitality,  the  occasion,  his  full  life,  and  high  ambi 
tion  might  well  bring  forth. 

"  He  never  rose  on  an  ordinary  occasion  to  address  an  ordinary  audi 
ence  more  self-possessed.  There  was  no  tremulousness  in  his  voice  nor 
manner;  nothing  hurried,  nothing  simulated.  The  calmness  of  superior 
strength  was  visible  everywhere  ;  in  countenance,  voice,  and  bearing. 
A  deep-seated  conviction  of  the  extraordinary  character  of  the  emergen 
cy,  and  of  his  ability  to  control  it,  seemed  to  possess  him  wholly.  If 
an  observer,  more  than  ordinarily  keen-sighted,  detected  at  times  some 
thing  like  exultation  in  his  eye,  he  presumed  it  sprang  from  the  excite 
ment  of  the  moment,  and  the  anticipation  of  victory. 

"  The  anxiety  to  hear  the  speech  was  so  intense,  irrepressible,  and 
universal,  that  no  sooner  had  the  Vice-President  assumed  the  chair,  thai* 
a  motion  was  made,  and  unanimously  carried,  to  postpone  the  ordinary 
preliminaries  of  Senatorial  action,  and  to  take  up  immediately  the  con 
sideration  of  the  resolution. 

"  Mr.  Webster  rose  and  addressed  the  Senate.  His  exordium  is  known 
by  heart  everywhere :  "  Mr.  President,  when  the  mariner  has  been 
tossed,  for  many  days,  in  thick  weather,  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he 
naturally  avails  himself  of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the  earliest  glance 
of  the  sun,  to  take  his  latitude,  and  ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have 
driven  him  from  his  true  course.  Let  us  imitate  this  prudence,  and,  be 
fore  we  float  farther  on  the  waves  of  this  debate,  refer  to  the  point  from 
which  we  departed,  that  we  may  at  least  be  able  to  conjecture  where  we 
now  are.  I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  resolution  before  the  Senate.' 

"  There  wanted  no  more  to  enchain  the  attention.  There  was  a  spon 
taneous,  though  silent,  expression  of  eager  approbation,  as  the  orator  con 
cluded  these  opening  remarks.  And  while  the  clerk  read  the  resolution, 
many  attempted  the  impossibility  of  getting  nearer  the  speaker.  Every 
head  was  inclined  closer  towards  him,  every  ear  turned  in  the  direction 
of  his  voice,  and  that  deep,  sudden,  mysterious  silence  followed,  which 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          Xcv 

always  attends  fulness  of  emotion.  From  the  sea  of  upturned  faces  be 
fore  him,  the  orator  beheld  his  thoughts  reflected  as  from  a  mirror. 
The  varying  countenance,  the  suffused  eye,  the  earnest  smile,  the  ever- 
attentive  look,  assured  him  of  his  audience's  entire  sympathy.  If  among 
his  hearers  there  were  those  who  affected  at  first  an  indifference  to  his 
glowing  thoughts  and  fervent  periods,  the  difficult  mask  was  soon  laid 
aside,  and  profound,  undisguised,  devoted  attention  followed.  In  the 
earlier  part  of  his  speech,  one  of  his  principal  opponents  seemed  deeply 
engrossed  in  the  careful  perusal  of  a  newspaper  he  held  before  his  face  ; 
but  this,  on  nearer  approach,  proved  to  be  upside  down.  In  truth,  all, 
sooner  or  later,  voluntarily,  or  in  spite  of  themselves,  were  wholly  car 
ried  away  by  the  eloquence  of  the  orator. 

"  Those  who  had  doubted  Mr.  Webster's  ability  to  cope  with  and 
overcome  his  opponents  were  fully  satisfied  of  their  error  before  he  had 
proceeded  far  in  his  speech.  Their  fears  soon  took  another  direction 
When  they  heard  his  sentences  of  powerful  thought,  towering  in  accu> 
mulative  grandeur,  one  above  the  other,  as  if  the  orator  strove,  Titan- 
like,  to  reach  the  very  heavens  themselves,  they  were  giddy  with  an  ap 
prehension  that  he  would  break  down  in  his  flight.  They  dared  not 
believe  that  genius,  learning,  and  intellectual  endowment  however  un 
common,  that  was  simply  mortal,  could  sustain  itself  long  in  a  career 
seemingly  so  perilous.  They  feared  an  Icarian  fall. 

"  What  New  England  heart  was  there  but  throbbed  with  vehement, 
tumultuous,  irrepressible  emotion,  as  he  dwelt  upon  New  England  suf 
ferings,  New  England  struggles,  and  New  England  triumphs  during  the 
war  of  the  Revolution  ?  There  was  scarcely  a  dry  eye  in  the  Senate  ; 
all  hearts  were  overcome  ;  grave  judges  and  men  grown  old  in  dignified 
life  turned  aside  their  heads,  to  conceal  the  evidences  of  their  emotion. 

"  In  one  corner  of  the  gallery  was  clustered  a  group  of  Massachusetts 
men.  They  had  hung  from  the  first  moment  upon  the  words  of  the 
speaker,  with  feelings  variously  but  always  warmly  excited,  deepening 
in  intensity  as  he  proceeded.  At  first,  while  the  orator  was  going 
through  his  exordium,  they  held  their  breath  and  hid  their  faces,  mind 
ful  of  the  savage  attack  upon  him  and  New  England,  and  the  fearful 
odds  against  him,  her  champion;  —  as  he  went  deeper  into  his  speech, 
they  felt  easier ;  when  he  turned  Hayne's  flank  on  Banquo's  ghost,  they 
breathed  freer  and  deeper.  But  now,  as  he  alluded  to  Massachusetts 
their  feelings  were  strained  to  the  highest  tension ;  and  when  the  orator 
concluding  his  encomium  of  the  land  of  their  birth,  turned,  intention 
ally  or  otherwise,  his  burrnng  eye  full  upon  them,  they  shed  tears  like 


xcvi        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  No  one  who  was  not  present  can  understand  the  excitement  of  the 
scene.  No  one  who  was,  can  give  an  adequate  description  of  it.  No 
word-painting  can  convey  the  deep,  intense  enthusiasm,  the  reveren 
tial  attention,  of  that  vast  assembly,  nor  limner  transfer  to  canvas  their 
earnest,  eager,  awe-struck  countenances.  Though  language  were  as 
subtile  and  flexible  as  thought,  it  still  would  be  impossible  to  represent 
the  full  idea  of  the  scene.  There  is  something  intangible  in  an  emotion, 
which  cannot  be  transferred.  The  nicer  shades  of  feeling  elude  pursuit. 
Every  description,  there  Tore,  of  the  occasion,  seems  to  the  narrator  him 
self  most  tame,  spiritless,  unjust. 

"  Much  of  the  instantaneous  effect  of  the  speech  arose,  of  course,  from 
the  orator's  delivery,  —  the  tones  of  his  voice,  his  countenance,  and 
manner.  These  die  mostly  with  the  occasion  that  calls  them  forth ;  the 
impression  is  lost  in  the  attempt  at  transmission  from  one  mind  to  an 
other.  They  can  only  be  described  in  general  terms.  l  Of  the  effec 
tiveness  of  Mr.  Webster's  manner  in  many  parts,'  says  Mr.  Everett,  '  it 
would  be  in  vain  to  attempt  to  give  any  one  not  present  the  faintest  idea. 
It  has  been  my  fortune  to  hear  some  of  the  ablest  speeches  of  the  great 
est  living  orators  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  but  I  must  confess  I  never 
heard  any  thing  which  so  completely  realized  my  conception  of  what 
Demosthenes  was  when  he  delivered  the  Oration  for  the  Crown.' 

"  The  variety  of  incident  during  the  speech,  and  the  rapid  fluctuation 
of  passions,  kept  the  audience  in  continual  expectation  and  ceaseless 
agitation.  There  was  no  chord  of  the  heart  the  orator  did  not  strike,  as 
with  a  master-hand.  The  speech  was  a  complete  drama  of  comic  and 
pathetic  scenes ;  one  varied  excitement ;  laughter  and  tears  gaining  al 
ternate  victory. 

"  A  great  portion  of  the  speech  is  strictly  argumentative ;  an  exposi 
tion  of  constitutional  law.  But  grave  as  such  portion  necessarily  is, 
severely  logical,  abounding  in  no  fancy  or  episode,  it  engrossed  through 
out  the  undivided  attention  of  every  intelligent  hearer.  Abstractions, 
under  the  glowing  genius  of  the  orator,  acquired  a  beauty,  a  vitality,  a 
pow.v  to  thrill  the  blood  and  enkindle  the  affections,  awakening  into 
earnest  activity  many  a  dormant  faculty.  His  ponderous  syllables  had 
an  energy,  a  vehemence  of  meaning  in  them,  that  fascinated,  while  they 
startled.  His  thoughts  in  their  statuesque  beauty  merely  would  have 
gained  all  critical  judgment ;  but  he  realized  the  antique  fable,  and 
warmed  the  marble  into  life.  There  was  a  sense  of  power  in  his  lan 
guage,  —  of  power  withheld  and  suggestive  of  still  greater  power,  —  that 
subdued,  as  by  a  spell  of  mystery,  the  hearts  of  all.  For  power,  wheth 
er  intellectual  or  physical,  produces  in  its  earnest  development  a  feeling 
closely  allied  to  awe.  It  was  never  more  felt  than  on  this  occasion.  It 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      xcvii 

Had  entire  mastery.  The  sex  which  is  said  to  love  it  best,  and  abuse  it 
most,  seemed  as  much  or  more  carried  away  than  the  sterner  one.  Many 
who  had  entered  the  hall  with  light,  gay  thoughts,  anticipating  at  most  a 
pleasurable  excitement,  soon  became  deeply  interested  in  the  speaker 
and  his  subject;  surrendered  him  their  entire  heart;  and  when  the 
speech  was  over,  and  they  left  the  hall,  it  was  with  sadder,  perhaps,  but 
surely  with  far  more  elevated  and  ennobling  emotions. 

"  The  exulting  rush  of  feeling  with  which  he  went  through  the  per 
oration  threw  a  glow  over  his  countenance,  like  inspiration.  Eye,  brow, 
each  feature,  every  line  of  the  face,  seemed  touched,  as  with  a  celestial 
fire. 

"  The  swell  and  roll  of  his  voice  struck  upon  the  ears  of  the  spell 
bound  audience,  in  deep  and  melodious  cadence,  as  waves  upon  the 
shore  of  the  4  far-resounding '  sea.  The  Miltonic  grandeur  of  his 
words  was  the  fit  expression  of  his  thought,  and  raised  his  hearers  up 
to  his  theme.  His  voice,  exerted  to  its  utmost  power,  penetrated  every 
recess  or  corner  of  the  Senate,  —  penetrated  even  the  ante-rooms  and 
stairways,  as  he  pronounced  in  deepest  tones  of  pathos  these  words  of 
solemn  significance  :  4  When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold,  for  the 
last  time,  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken 
and  dishonored  fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union  ;  on  States  dissevered, 
discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it 
may  be,  in  fraternal  blood  !  Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance 
rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  republic,  now  known  and  hon 
ored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a 
single  star  obscured,  bearing  for  its  motto,  no  such  miserable  interroga 
tory  as,  "What  is  all  this  worth  ?  "  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion  and 
folly,  "  Liberty  first  and  Union  afterwards  "  ;  but  everywhere,  spread 
all  over  in  characters  of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as 
they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under 
the  whole  heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  American 
heart,  —  LIBERTY  AND  UNION,  NOW  AND  FOR  EVER,  ONE  AND  INSEP 
ARABLE  !' 

"  The  speech  was  over,  but  the  tones  of  the  orator  still  lingered  upon 
the  ear,  and  the  audience,  unconscious  of  the  close,  retained  their  posi 
tions.  The  agitated  countenance,  the  heaving  breast,  the  suffused  eye, 
attested  the  continued  influence  of  the  spell  upon  them.  Hands  that,  in 
the  excitement  of  the  moment,  had  sought  each  other,  still  remained 
closed  in  an  unconscious  grasp.  Eye  still  turned  to  eye,  to  receive  and 
repay  mutual  sympathy ;  and  everywhere  around  seemed  forgetfulness 
of  all  but  the  orator's  presence  and  words."  —  pp.  132-  148. 

VOL.    I.  I 


xcviii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

After  having  spoken  about  three  hours  on  the  26th  of  Jan 
uary.  Mr.  Webster  gave  way  for  an  adjournment.  He  resumed 
and  concluded  the  speech  on  the  following  day.  During  most 
of  the  time  that  he  was  speaking,  Mr.  Hayne  occupied  himself 
in  taking  notes,  and  rose  to  reply  at  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Web 
ster's  argument.  An  adjournment  was  proposed  by  one  of  Mr. 
Hayne's  friends,  but  he  wisely  determined  to  terminate  all  that 
he  intended  to  say  on  the  subject  upon  the  spot.  He  accord 
ingly  addressed  the  Senate  for  about  half  an  hour  upon  the 
constitutional  question  which  formed  the  most  important  por 
tion  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech.  These  remarks  of  Mr.  Hayne 
were,  in  the  newspaper  report,  expanded  into  an  elaborate 
argument,  which  occupies  nineteen  pages  in  the  register  of 
Congressional  debates.  When  Mr.  Hayne  sat  down,  Mr. 
Webster,  in  turn,  rose  to  make  a  brief  rejoinder.  "  The  gen 
tleman,"  said  he,  "  has  in  vain  attempted  to  reconstruct  his 
shattered  argument " ;  and  this  formidable  exordium  was  fol 
lowed  up  by  a  brief  restatement  of  his  own  argument,  which, 
for  condensation,  precision,  and  force,  may  be  referred  to  as 
a  specimen  of  parliamentary  logic  never  surpassed.  The  art 
of  reasoning  on  moral  questions  can  go  no  further. 

Thus  terminated  the  day's  great  work.  In  the  evening  the 
Senatorial  champions  met  at  a  friend's  house,  and  exchanged 
those  courteous  salutations  which  mitigate  the  asperity  of  po 
litical  collision,  and  prevent  the  conflicts  of  party  from  embit 
tering  social  life. 

The  sensation  produced  by  the  great  debate  on  those  who 
heard  it  was  but  the  earnest  of  its  effect  on  the  country  at 
large.  The  length  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech  did  not  prevent  its 
being  copied  into  the  leading  newspapers  throughout  the  coun 
try.  It  was  the  universal  theme  of  conversation.  Letters  of 
acknowledgment  and  congratulation  from  the  most  distin 
guished  individuals,  from  politicians  retired  from  active  life, 
from  entire  strangers,  from  persons  not  sympathizing  with  all 
Mr.  Webster's  views,  from  distant  parts  of  the  Union,  were 
addressed  to  him  by  every  mail.  Immense  editions  of  the 
speech  in  a  pamphlet  form  were  called  for.  A  proposal  was 
made  to  the  friends  of  Mr.  Hayne  to  unite  in  the  publication 
of  a  joint  edition  of  the  two  speeches  for  general  circulation 
throughout  the  country,  but  this  offer  was  declined.  Mr.  Web- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        xcix 

sler's  friends  in  Boston  published  a  pamphlet  edition  of  the 
speeches  of  Mr.  Hayne  and  Mr.  Webster.  It  is  no  exagger 
ation  to  say,  that  throughout  the  country  Mr.  Webster's  speech 
was  regarded,  not  only  as  a  brilliant  and  successful  personal 
defence  and  a  triumphant  vindication  of  New  England,  but  as 
a  complete  overthrow  of  the  dangerous  constitutional  heresies 
which  had  menaced  the  stability  of  the  Union. 

In  this  light  it  was  looked  upon  by  a  large  number  of  the  most 
distinguished  citizens  of  New  York,  who  took  occasion  to  offer 
Mr.  Webster  the  compliment  of  a  public  dinner  the  following 
winter.  Circumstances  delayed  the  execution  of  their  purpose 
till  some  time  had  elapsed  from  the  delivery  of  the  speech,  but 
the  recollection  of  it  was  vivid,  and  it  was  referred  to  by  Chan 
cellor  Kent,  the  president  of  the  day,  as  the  service  especially 
demanding  the  grateful  recognition  of  the  country.  After  al 
luding  to  the  debate  on  Foot's  resolution  and  to  the  character 
of  Mr.  Webster's  speech,  the  venerable  Chancellor  added :  — 

"  The  consequences  of  that  discussion  have  been  extremely  benefi 
cial.  It  turned  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  great  doctrines  of  na 
tional  rights  and  national  union.  Constitutional  law  ceased  to  remain 
wrapped  up  in  the  breasts,  and  taught  only  by  the  responses,  of  the  living 
oracles  of  the  law.  Socrates  was  said  to  have  drawn  down  philosophy 
from  the  skies,  and  scattered  it  among  the  schools.  It  may  with  equal 
truth  be  said  that  constitutional  law,  by  means  of  those  senatorial  dis 
cussions  and  the  master  genius  that  guided  them,  was  rescued  from 
the  archives  of  our  tribunals  and  the  libraries  of  our  lawyers,  and  placed 
under  the  eye  and  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  American  people. 
Their  verdict  is  with  ws,  and  from  it  there  lies  no  appeal"  * 

WTith  respect  to  Mr.  Foot's  resolution  it  may  be  observed, 
that  it  continued  before  the  Senate  a  long  time,  a  standing 
subject  of  discussion.  One  half  at  least  of  the  members  of  the 
Senate  took  part  in  the  debate,  which  daily  assumed  a  wider 
range  and  wandered  farther  from  the  starting-point,  Many 
speeches  were  made  which,  under  other  circumstances,  would 
have  attracted  notice,  but  the  interest  of  the  controversy  ex 
pired  with  the  great  effort  of  the  26th  and  27th  of  January.  At 
length,  on  the  21st  of  May,  a  motion  for  indefinite  postpone- 

*  Chancellor  Kent's  remarks  are  given  entire  in  the  introduction  to  Mr. 
Webster's  Speech  at  the  New  York  Dinner,  Vol.  I.  p.  194. 


c  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

merit,  submitted  by  Mr.  Webster  at  the  close  of  his  first  speech, 
prevailed,  and  thus  the  whole  discussion  ended. 

It  may  be  worthy  of  remark,  that  Mr.  Webster's  speech  was 
taken  in  short-hand  by  Mr.  Gales,  the  veteran  editor  of  the 
National  Intelligencer,  a  stenographer  of  great  experience  and 
skill.  It  was  written  out  in  common  hand  by  a  member  of  his 
family,  and  sent  to  Mr.  Webster  for  correction.  It  remained  in 
his  hands  for  that  purpose  a  part  of  one  day,  and  then  went  to 
the  press. 

A  young  and  gifted  American  artist,*  whose  talents  had 
been  largely  put  in  requisition  by  King  Louis  Philippe  to  adorn 
the  walls  of  Versailles,  conceived  a  few  years  ago  the  happy 
idea  of  a  grand  historical  picture  of  this  debate.  On  a  canvas 
of  the  largest  size  he  has  nobly  delineated  the  person  of  the 
principal  individual  in  the  act  of  replying  to  Mr.  Hayne,  with 
those  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Senate.  The  passages  and  gal 
leries  of  the  Senate- Chamber  are  filled  with  attentive  listeners 
of  both  sexes.  Above  a  hundred  accurate  studies  from  life 
give  authenticity  to  a  work  in  which  posterity  will  find  the 
sensible  presentment  of  this  great  intellectual  effort. 

*  Mr.  Geo.  P.  A,  Healey. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  cj 


CHAPTER    VII. 

General  Character  of  President  Jackson's  Administrations.  —  Speedy  Discord  among 
the  Parties  which  had  united  for  his  Elevation.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Relations  to  the  Ad 
ministration.  —  Veto  of  the  Bank.  —  Rise  and  Progress  of  Nullification  in  South  Car 
olina.  —  The  Force  Bill,  and  the  Reliance  of  General  Jackson's  Administration  on 
Mr.  Webster's  Aid.  —  His  Speech  in  Defence  of  the  Bill,  and  in  Opposition  to  Mr. 
Calhoun's  Resolutions.  —  Mr.  Madison's  Letter  on  Secession.  —  The  Removal  of 
the  Deposits.  —  Motives  for  that  Measure.  —  The  Resolution  of  the  Senate  disap 
proving  it.  —  The  President's  Protest.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Speech  on  the  Subject  of 
the  Protest.  —  Opinions  of  Chancellor  Kent  and  Mr.  Tazewell.  —  The  Expunging 
Resolution.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Protest  against  it.  —  Mr.  Van  Buren's  Election.  — 
The  Financial  Crisis  and  the  Extra  Session  of  Congress. —  The -Government  Plan 
of  Finance  supported  by  Mr.  Calhoun  and  opposed  by  Mr.  Webster.  —  Personali 
ties. —  Mr.  Webster's  Visit  to  Europe  and  distinguished  Reception.  —  The  Presi 
dential  Canvass  of  1840.  —  Election  of  General  Harrison. 

IT  would  require  a  volume  of  ample  dimensions  to  relate  the 
history  of  Mr.  Webster's  Senatorial  career  from  this  time  till 
the  accession  of  General  Harrison  to  the  Presidency,  in  1841. 
In  this  interval  the  government  was  administered  for  two  suc 
cessive  terms  by  General  Jackson,  and  for  a  single  term  by  Mr. 
Van  Buren.  It  was  a  period  filled  with  incidents  of  great  im 
portance  in  various  departments  of  the  government,  often  of  a 
startling  character  at  the  time,  and  not  less  frequently  exerting 
a  permanent  influence  on  the  condition  of  the  country.  It  may 
be  stated  as  the  general  characteristic  of  the  political  tenden 
cies  of  this  period,  that  there  was  a  decided  weakening  of  re 
spect  for  constitutional  restraint.  Vague  ideas  of  executive 
discretion  prevailed  on  the  one  hand  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  and  of  popular  sovereignty  on  the  other,  as  repre 
sented  by  a  President  elevated  to  office  by  overwhelming  ma 
jorities  of  the  people.  The  expulsion  of  the  Indian  tribes  from 
the  Southern  States,  in  violation  of  the  faith  of  treaties  and 
in  open  disregard  of  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  as  to  their  obligation ;  the  claim  of  a  right  on 
the  part  of  a  State  to  nullify  an  act  of  the  general  government ; 
the  violation  of  the  charter  of  the  bank,  and  the  Presidential 
veto  of  the  act  of  Congress  rechartering  it ;  the  deposit  of  the 
public  money  in  the  selected  State  banks  with  a  view  to  its 
safe  keeping  and  for  the  greater  encouragement  of  trade  by  the 


cii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

loan  of  the  public  funds  ;  the  explosion  of  this  system,  and  the 
adoption  of  one  directly  opposed  to  it,  which  rejected  wholly 
the  aid  of  the  banks  and  denied  the  right  of  the  government  to 
employ  the  public  funds  for  any  but  fiscal  purposes ;  the  execu 
tive  menaces  of  war  against  France ;  the  unsuccessful  attempt 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration  to  carry  on  the  government 
upon  General  Jackson's  system ;  the  panic  of  1837,  succeeded 
by  the  general  uprising  of  the  country  and  the  universal  de 
mand  for  a  change  of  men  and  measures,  —  these  are  the  lead 
ing  incidents  in  the  chronicle  of  the  period  in  question.  Most 
of  the  events  referred  to  are  discussed  in  the  following  volumes. 
On  some  of  them  Mr.  Webster  put  forth  all  his  power.  The 
questions  pertaining  to  the  construction  of  the  Constitution,  to 
the  bank,  to  the  veto  power,  to  the  currency,  to  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  tariff,  to  the  right  of  removal  from  office,  and  to 
the  finances,  were  discussed  in  almost  every  conceivable  form, 
and  with  every  variety  of  argument  and  illustration. 

It  has  already  been  observed,  that  General  Jackson  was 
brought  into  power  by  a  somewhat  ill-compacted  alliance  be 
tween  his  original  friends  and  a  portion  of  the  friends  of  the 
other  candidates  of  1824.  As  far  as  Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  fol 
lowers  were  concerned,  the  cordiality  of  the  union  was  gone 
before  the  inauguration  of  the  new  President.  There  was  not 
only  on  the  list  of  the  cabinet  to  be  appointed  no  adequate 
representative  of  the  Vice-President,  but  his  rival  candidate  for 
the  succession  (Mr.  Van  Buren)  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
administration.  There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  General 
Jackson,  who,  though  his  policy  tended  greatly  to  impair  the 
strength  of  the  Union,  was  in  feeling  a  warm  Unionist,  wit 
nessed  with  no  dissatisfaction  the  result  of  the  great  consti 
tutional  debate  and  its  influence  upon  the  country. 

But  the  effect  of  this  debate  on  the  friendly  relations  of  Mr. 
Webster  with  the  administration  was  in  some  degree  neu 
tralized  by  the  incidents  of  the  second  session  of  ^ie  Twenty- 
first  Congress.  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  retreated  before  the  em 
barrassments  of  the  position  in  which  he  found  himself  in  the 
Department  of  State,  and  had  accepted  the  mission  to  Eng 
land.  The  instructions  which  he  had  given  to  Mr.  McLane  in 
1829,  in  reference  to  the  adjustment  of  the  question  relative  to 
the  colonial  trade,  were  deemed  highly  objectionable  by  a  ma- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          ciii 

jority  of  the  Senate,  as  bringing  the  relations  of  our  domestic 
parties  to  the  notice  of  a  foreign  government,  and  founding 
upon  a  change  of  administration  an  argument  for  the  conces 
sion  of  what  was  deemed  and  called  "  a  boon  "  by  the  British 
government.  In  order  to  mark  the  spirit  of  these  instructions 
with  the  disapprobation  of  the  Senate,  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren  as  Minister  to  England  was  negatived  by  a  major 
ity  of  that  body.  While  the  subject  was  under  discussion,  Mr. 
Clay,  Mr.  Webster,  and  Mr.  Calhoun  took  the  same  view  of 
this  delicate  question.  It  will  be  found  treated  in  the  speech  of 
Mr.  Webster  of  the  24th  of  January,  1832,  with  all  the  gravity, 
temper,  and  moderation  which  its  importance  demanded. 

In  the  Twenty-second  Congress  (the  second  of  General 
Jackson's  administration)  the  bank  question  became  prominent. 
General  Jackson  had  in  his  first  message  called  the  attention 
of  Congress  to  the  subject  of  the  bank.  No  doubt  of  its  consti 
tutionality  was  then  intimated  by  him.  In  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two  an  attempt  was  made,  on  the  part  of  the  execu 
tive,  to  control  the  appointment  of  the  officers  of  one  of  the 
Eastern  branches.  This  attempt  was  resisted  by  the  bank, 
and  from  that  time  forward  a  state  of  warfare,  at  first  partially 
disguised,  but  finally  open  and  flagrant,  existed  between  the 
government  and  the  directors  of  the  institution.  In  the  first 
session  of  the  Twenty-second  Congress  (1831-32),  a  bill  was 
introduced  by  Mr.  Dallas,  and  passed  the  two  houses,  to  renew 
the  charter  of  the  bank.  This  measure  was  supported  by  Mr. 
Webster,  on  the  ground  of  the  importance  of  a  national  bank 
to  the  fiscal  operations  of  the  government,  and  to  the  currency, 
exchange,  and  general  business  of  the  country.  No  specific 
complaints  of  mismanagement  had  then  been  made,  nor  were 
any  abuses  alleged  to  exist.  The  bank  was,  almost  without 
exception,  popular  at  that  time  with  the  business  interests  of 
the  country,  and  particularly  at  the  South  and  West.  Its 
credit  in  England  was  solid ;  its  bills  and  drafts  on  London 
took  the  place  of  specie  for  remittances  to  India  and  China. 
Its  convenience  and  usefulness  were  recognized  in  the  report  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Mr.  McLane),  at  the  same  time 
that  its  constitutionality  was  questioned  and  its  existence 
threatened  by  the  President.  So  completely,  however,  was  the 
policy  of  General  Jackson's  administration  the  impulse  of  his 


civ          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

own  feelings  and  individual  impressions,  and  so  imperfectly  had 
these  been  disclosed  on  the  present  occasion,  that  the  fate  of  the 
bill  for  rechartering  the  bank  was  a  matter  of  uncertainty  on 
the  part  both  of  adherents  and  opponents.  Many  persons  on 
both  sides  of  the  two  houses  were  taken  by  surprise  by  the  veto. 
When  the  same  question  was  to  be  decided  by  General  Wash 
ington,  he  took  the  opinion  in  writing  of  every  member  of  the 
Cabinet. 

But  events  of  a  different  complexion  soon  occurred,  and  gave 
a  new  direction  to  the  thoughts  of  men  throughout  the  country. 
The  opposition  of  South  Carolina  to  the  protective  policy  had 
been  pushed  to  a  point  of  excitement  at  which  it  was  beyond  the 
control  of  party  leaders.  Although,  as  we  have  seen,  that  policy 
had  in  1816  been  established  by  the  aid  of  distinguished  states 
men  of  South  Carolina,  who  saw  in  the  success  of  American 
cotton  manufactures  a  new  market  for  the  staple  of  the  South, 
in  which  it  would  take  the  place  of  the  cotton  of  India,  the  pro 
tective  policy  at  a  later  period  had  come  to  be  generally  consid 
ered  unconstitutional  at  the  South.  A  change  of  opinion  some 
what  similar  had  taken  place  in  New  England,  which  had  been 
originally  opposed  to  this  policy,  as  adverse  to  the  commercial 
and  navigating  interests.  Experience  gradually  showed  that 
such  was  not  the  case.  The  enactment  of  the  law  of  1824  was 
considered  as  establishing  the  general  principle  of  protection  as 
the  policy  of  the  country.  It  was  known  to  be  the  policy  of  the 
great  central  States.  The  capital  of  the  North  was  to  some  ex 
tent  forced  into  new  channels.  Some  branches  of  manufactures 
flourished,  as  skill  was  acquired  and  improvements  in  machinery 
made.  The  coarse  cotton  fabrics  which  had  enjoyed  the  pro 
tection  of  the  minimum  duty  prospered,  manufacturing  villages 
grew  up,  the  price  of  the  fabric  fell,  and  as  competition  increased 
the  tariff  did  little  more  than  protect  the  domestic  manufacturer 
from  fraudulent  invoices  and  the  fluctuation  of  foreign  markets. 
Thus  all  parties  were  benefited,  not  excepting  the  South,  which 
gained  a  new  customer  for  her  staple.  These  changes  in  the 
condition  of  things  led  Mr.  Webster,  as  we  have  remarked  in  a 
former  chapter,  to  modify  his  course  on  the  tariff  question. 

Unfortunately,  no  manufactures  had  been  established  at  the 
South.  The  vast  quantities  of  new  and  fertile  land  opened  in 
the  west  of  Georgia,  in  Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  injured  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  Cv 

value  of  the  old  and  partly  exhausted  lands  of  the  Atlantic 
States.  Labor  was  drawn  off  to  found  plantations  in  the  new 
States,  and  the  injurious  consequences  were  ascribed  to  the 
tariff.  Considerations  of  a  political  nature  had  entirely  changed 
the  tolerant  feeling  which,  up  to  a  certain  period,  had  been  shown 
by  one  class  of  Southern  politicians  toward  the  protective  policy. 
With  the  exception  of  Louisiana,  and  one  or  two  votes  in  Vir 
ginia,  the  whole  South  was  united  against  the  tariff.  South 
Carolina  had  suffered  most  by  the  inability  of  her  worn  lands 
to  sustain  the  competition  with  the  lands  of  the  Yazoo  and  the 
Red  River,  and  to  her  the  most  active  opposition,  under  the  lead 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  was  confined.  The  modem  doctrine  of  nullifi 
cation  was  broached  by  her  accomplished  statesmen,  and  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  made  to  deduce  it  from  the  Virginia  res 
olutions  of  1798.  Mr.  Madison,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
writer  of  these  pages,*  in  August,  1830,  firmly  resisted  this  at 
tempt  ;  and,  as  a  theory,  the  whole  doctrine  of  nullification  was 
overthrown  by  Mr.  Webster,  in  his  speech  of  the  26th  of  Janu 
ary,  1830.  But  public  sentiment  had  gone  too  far  in  South 
Carolina  to  be  checked ;  party  leaders  were  too  deeply  com 
mitted  to  retreat;  and  at  the  close  of  1832  the  ordinance  of 
nullification  was  adopted  by  a  State  convention. 

This  decisive  act  roused  the  hero  of  New  Orleans  from  the 
vigilant  repose  with  which  he  had  watched  the  coming  storm. 
Confidential  orders  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for  active 
service  were  sent  in  every  direction  to  the  officers  of  the  army 
and  the  navy.  Prudent  and  resolute  men  were  quietly  stationed 
at  the  proper  posts.  Arms  and  munitions  in  abundance  were 
held  in  readiness,  and  a  chain  of  expresses  in  advance  of  the 
mail  was  established  from  the  Capitol  to  Charleston.  These 
preparations  made,  the  Presidential  proclamation  of  the  llth  of 
December,  1832,  was  issued.  It  was  written  by  Mr.  Edward 
Livingston,  then  Secretary  of  State,  from  notes  furnished  by 
General  Jackson  himself;  but  there  is  not  an  idea  of  importance 
in  it  which  may  not  be  found  in  Mr.  Webster's  speech  on  Foot's 
resolution. 

The  proclamation  of  the  President  was  met  by  the  counter- 
proclamation  of  Governor  Hayne ;  and  the  State  of  South  Car- 

*  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XXXI.  p.  537, 


cvi          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

olina  proceeded  to  pass  laws  for  carrying  the  ordinance  of  nul 
lification  into  effect,  and  for  putting  the  State  into  a  condition 
to  carry  on  war  with  the  general  government.  In  this  posture 
of  affairs  the  President  of  the  United  States  laid  the  matter  be 
fore  Congress,  in  his  message  of  the  16th  of  January,  1833,  and 
the  bill  "  further  to  provide  for  the  collection  of  duties  on  im 
ports  "  was  introduced  into  the  Senate,  in  pursuance  of  his 
recommendations.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  at  this  time  a  member  of 
that  body,  having  been  chosen  to  succeed  Governor  Hayne,  and 
having  of  course  resigned  the  office  of  Vice- President.  Thus 
called,  for  the  first  time,  to  sustain  in  person  before  the  Senate 
and  the  country  the  policy  of  nullification,  which  had  been 
adopted  by  South  Carolina  mainly  under  his  influence,  and 
which  was  now  threatening  the  Union,  it  hardly  need  be  said 
that  he  exerted  all  his  ability,  and  put  forth  all  his  resources,  in 
defence  of  the  doctrine  which  had  brought  his  State  to  the  verge 
of  revolution.  It  is  but  justice  to  add,  that  he  met  the  occasion 
with  equal  courage  and  vigor.  The  bill  "  to  make  further  pro 
vision  for  the  collection  of  the  revenue,"  or  "  Force  Bill,"  as  it 
was  called,  was  reported  by  Mr.  Wilkins  from  the  Committee 
on  the  Judiciary  on  the  21st  of  January,  and  on  the  following 
day  Mr.  Calhoun  moved  a  series  of  resolutions,  affirming  the 
right  of  a  State  to  annul,  as  far  as  her  citizens  are  concerned, 
any  act  of  Congress  which  she  may  deem  oppressive  and  un 
constitutional.  On  the  15th  and  16th  of  February,  he  spoke  at 
length  in  opposition  to  the  bill,  and  in  development  and  sup 
port  of  his  resolutions.  On  this  occasion  the  doctrine  of  nullifi 
cation  was  sustained  by  him  with  far  greater  ability  than  it  had 
been  by  General  Hayne,  and  in  a  speech  which  we  believe  is 
regarded  as  Mr.  Calhoun's  most  powerful  effort.  In  closing 
his  speech,  Mr.  Calhoun  challenged  the  opponents  of  his  doc 
trines  to  disprove  them,  and  warned  them,  in  the  concluding 
sentence,  that  the  principles  they  might  advance  would  be  sub 
jected  to  the  revision  of  posterity.* 

Mr.  Webster,  before  Mr.  Calhoun  had  resumed  his  seat,  or  he 
had  risen  from  his  own,  accepted  the  challenge,  and  commenced 
his  reply.  He  began  to  speak  as  he  was  rising,  and  continued 
to  address  the  Senate  with  great  force  and  effect,  for  about 

*  This  passage  does  not  appear  in  the  report  preserved  in  the  volume  contain 
ing  his  Select  Speeches. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  Cvii 

two  hours.  The  Senate  then  took  a  recess,  and  after  it  came 
together  Mr.  Webster  spoke  again,  from  five  o'clock  till  eight  in 
the  evening.  The  speech  was  more  purely  a  constitutional  ar 
gument  than  that  of  the  26th  of  January,  1830.  It  was  mainly 
devoted  to  an  examination  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  resolutions ;  to  a 
review  of  the  adoption  and  ratification  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  by  way  of  elucidating  the  question  whether 
the  system  provided  by  the  Constitution  is  a  government  of  the 
people  or  a  compact  between  the  States ;  and  to  a  discussion 
of  the  constitutionality  of  the  tariff.  It  was  less  various  and 
discursive  in  its  matter  than  the  speech  on  Foot's  resolution, 
but  more  condensed  and  systematic.  Inferior,  perhaps,  in  inter 
est  for  a  mixed  audience,  from  the  absence  of  personal  allusions, 
which  at  all  times  give  the  greatest  piquancy  to  debate,  a  severe 
judgment  might  pronounce  it  a  finer  piece  of  parliamentary  logic. 
Nor  must  it  be  inferred  from  this  description  that  it  was  desti 
tute  of  present  interest.  The  Senate-chamber  was  thronged  to 
its  utmost  capacity,  both  before  and  after  the  recess,  although 
the  streets  of  Washington,  owing  to  the  state  of  the  weather  at 
the  time,  were  nearly  impassable. 

The  opinion  entertained  of  this  speech  by  the  individual  who, 
of  all  the  people  of  America,  was  the  best  qualified  to  estimate 
its  value,  may  be  seen  from  the  following  letter  of  Mr.  Madison, 
which  has  never  before  been  published. 

"  Montpellier,  March  15th,  1833. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  return  my  thanks  for  the  copy  of  your  late  very 
powerful  speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  It  crushes  '  nulli 
fication,'  and  must  hasten  an  abandonment  of  '  secession.'  But  this 
dodges  the  blow,  by  confounding  the  claim  to  secede  at  will  with  the 
right  of  seceding  from  intolerable  oppression.  The  former  answers 
itself,  being  a  violation  without  cause  of  a  faith  solemnly  pledged.  The 
latter  is  another  name  only  for  revolution,  about  which  there  is  no  theo 
retic  controversy.  Its  double  aspect,  nevertheless,  with  the  countenance 
received  from  certain  quarters,  is  giving  it  a  popular  currency  here, 
which  may  influence  the  approaching  elections  both  for  Congress  and 
for  the  State  legislature.  It  has  gained  some  advantage  also  by  mixing 
itself  with  the  question,  whether  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  formed  by  the  people  or  by  the  States,  now  under  a  theoretic  dis 
cussion  by  animated  partisans. 

"  It  is  fortunate  when  disputed  theories  can  be  decided  by  undisputed 


cviii       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

facts,  and  here  the  undisputed  fact  is,  that  the  Constitution  was  mude  by 
the  people,  but  as  embodied  into  the  several  States  who  were  parties  to 
it,  and  therefore  made  by  the  States  in  their  highest  authoritative  ca 
pacity.  They  might,  by  the  same  authority  and  by  the  same  process, 
have  converted  the  confederacy  into  a  mere  league  or  treaty,  or  con 
tinued  it  with  enlarged  or  abridged  powers  ;  or  have  embodied  the 
people  of  their  respective  States  into  one  people,  nation,  or  sovereignty ; 
or,  as  they  did,  by  a  mixed  form,  make  them  one  people,  nation,  or  sov 
ereignty  for  certain  purposes,  and  not  so  for  others. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  being  established  by  a  com 
petent  authority,  by  that  of  the  sovereign  people  of  the  several  States 
who  were  parties  to  it,  it  remains  only  to  inquire  what  the  Constitution 
is ;  and  here  it  speaks  for  itself.  It  organizes  a  government  into  the 
usual  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary  departments ;  invests  it  with 
specified  powers,  leaving  others  to  the  parties  to  the  Constitution.  It 
makes  the  government  like  other  governments  to  operate  directly  on  the 
people ;  places  at  its  command  the  needful  physical  means  of  execut 
ing  its  powers ;  and  finally  proclaims  its  supremacy,  and  that  of  the 
laws  made  in  pursuance  of  it,  over  the  constitutions  and  laws  of  the 
States,  the  powers  of  the  government  being  exercised,  as  in  other  elec 
tive  and  responsible  governments,  under  the  control  of  its  constituents, 
the  people  and  the  legislatures  of  the  States,  and  subject  to  the  revo 
lutionary  rights  of  the  people,  in  extreme  cases. 

"  Such  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  de  jure  and  de  facto, 
and  the  name,  whatever  it  be,  that  may  be  given  to  it  can  make  it  noth 
ing  more  or  less  than  what  it  is. 

"  Pardon  this  hasty  effusion,  which,  whether  precisely  according  or  not 
with  your  ideas,  presents,  I  am  aware,  none  that  will  be  new  to  you. 
"  With  great  esteem  and  cordial  salutations, 

"  JAMES  MADISON. 

"  MR.  WEBSTER." 

It  may  be  observed,  in  reference  to  the  closing  remark  in  the 
above  important  letter,  that  the  view  which  it  presents  of  the 
nature  of  the  government  established  by  the  Constitution  is  pre 
cisely  that  taken  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  various  speeches  in 
which  the  subject  is  discussed  by  him. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  felt  the  importance  of 
Mr.  Webster's  aid  in  the  great  constitutional  struggle  of  the 
session.  There  were  men  of  great  ability  enlisted  in  support 
of  his  administration,  Messrs  Forsyth,  Grundy,  Dallas,  Rives, 
and  others,  but  no  one  competent  to  assume  the  post  of  antag- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  cix 

onist  to  the  great  Southern  leader.  The  general  political  po 
sition  of  Mr.  Webster  made  it  in  no  degree  his  duty  to  sus- 
'tain  the  administration  in  any  party  measure,  but  the  reverse. 
But  his  whole  course  as  a  public  man,  and  all  his  principles,  for 
bade  him  to  act  from  party  motives  in  a  great  crisis  of  the 
country's  fortunes.  The  administration  was  -now  engaged  in  a 
fearful  struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  the  in 
tegrity  of  the  Constitution.  The  doctrines  of  the  proclamation 
were  the  doctrines  of  his  speech  on  Foot's  resolution  almost  to 
the  words.  He  would  have  been  unjust  to  his  most  cherished 
principles  and  his  views  of  public  duty  had  he  not  come  to  the 
rescue,  not  of  the  administration,  but  of  the  country,  in  this  hour 
of  her  peril.  His  aid  was  personally  solicited  in  the  great  debate 
on  the  "  Force  Bill"  by  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  but  it  was  not 
granted  till  the  bill  had  undergone  important  amendments  sug 
gested  by  him,  when  it  was  given  cordially,  without  stint  and 
without  condition.* 

In  the  recess  of  Congress  in  the  year  1833,  Mr.  Webster 
made  a  short  journey  to  the  Middle  States  and  the  West.  He 
was  everywhere  the  object  of  the  most  distinguished  and  re 
spectful  attentions.  Public  receptions  took  place  at  Buffalo  and 
Pittsburg,  where,  under  the  auspices  of  committees  of  the  high 
est  respectability,  he  addressed  immense  assemblages  convened 
without  distinction  of  party.  Invitations  to  similar  meetings 
reached  him  from  many  quarters,  which  he  was  obliged  by  want 
of  leisure  to  decline. 

The  friendly  relations  into  which  Mr.  Webster  had  been 
drawn  with  the  President,  and  the  enthusiastic  welcome  given 
to  the  President  on  his  tour  to  the  East,  in  the  summer  of  1833, 
awakened  jealousy  in  certain  quarters.  It  was  believed  at  the 
time,  by  well-informed  persons,  that  among  the  motives  which 
actuated  some  persons  in  General  Jackson's  confidence,  in  fan 
ning  his  hostility  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  was  that 
of  bringing  forward  a  question  of  great  interest  both  to  the 

*  It  is  not  wholly  unworthy  of  remark  in  this  place,  as  illustrating  the  de 
pendence  on  Mr.  Webster's  aid  which  was  felt  at  the  White  House,  that,  on 
the  day  of  his  reply  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  President's  carriage  was  sent  to  Mr. 
Webster's  lodgings,  as  was  supposed  with  a  message  borne  by  the  President's 
private  secretary.  Happening  to  be  still  at  the  door  when  Mr.  Webster  waa 
about  to  go  to  the  Capitol,  it  conveyed  him  to  the  Senate-chamber. 

VOL.    I.  7 


ex  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

public  and  the  President,  on  which  he  would  be  sure  to  en 
counter  Mr.  Webster's  opposition. 

Such  a  subject  was  the  removal  of  the  deposits  of  the  public 
moneys  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  a  measure  produc 
tive  of  more  immediate  distress  to  the  community  and  a  largei 
train  of  evil  consequences  than  perhaps  any  similar  measure  in 
our  political  history.  It  was  finally  determined  upon  while  the 
President  was  on  his  Northern  tour,  in  the  summer  of  1833,  re 
ceiving  in  every  part  of  New  England  those  warm  demonstra 
tions  of  respect  which  his  patriotic  course  in  the  great  nullifica 
tion  struggle  had  inspired.  It  is  proper  to  state,  that  up  to  this 
period,  in  the  judgment  of  more  than  one  committee  of  Con 
gress  appointed  to  investigate  its  affairs,  in  the  opinion  of  both 
houses  of  Congress,  who  in  1832  had  passed  a  bill  to  renew 
the  charter,  and  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  had 
resolved  that  the  deposits  were  safe  in  its  custody,  the  affairs 
of  the  bank  had  been  conducted  with  prudence,  integrity,  and 
remarkable  skill.  It  was  not  the  least  evil  consequence  of  the 
warfare  waged  upon  the  bank,  that  it  was  finally  drawn  into  a 
position  (though  not  till  its  Congressional  charter  expired,  and 
it  accepted  very  unwisely  a  charter  as  a  State  institution)  in 
which,  in  its  desperate  struggle  to  sustain  itself,  it  finally  for 
feited  the  confidence  of  its  friends  and  the  public,  and  made  a 
deplorable  and  shameful  shipwreck  at  once  of  its  interests  and 
honor,  involving  hundreds,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  its  own 
deserved  ruin. 

The  second  administration  of  General  Jackson,  which  com 
menced  in  March,  1833,  was  principally  employed  in  carrying 
on  this  war  against  the  bank,  and  in  the  effort  to  build  up  the 
league  of  the  associated  banks  into  an  efficient  fiscal  agent  of 
the  government.  The  dangerous  crisis  of  affairs  in  South  Caro 
lina  had,  for  the  time,  passed.  The  passage  of  the  "  Force  Bill " 
had  vindicated  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  as  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land,  and  had  armed  the  President  with  the  needed 
powers  to  maintain  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Compromise  Bill 
of  Mr.  Clay,  providing  for  the  gradual  reduction  of  all  duties 
to  one  uniform  rate  of  twenty  per  cent,  was  accepted  by  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  his  friends  as  a  practical  concession,  and  fur 
nished  them  the  opportunity  of  making  what  they  deemed  a  not 
discreditable  retreat  from  the  attitude  of  military  resistance  in 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  cxi 

which  they  had  placed  the  State.  Regarding  this  bill  in  the 
light  of  a  concession  to  unconstitutional  menace,  as  tending  to 
the  eventual  prostration  of  all  the  interests  which  had  grown  up 
under  the  system  so  long  pursued  by  the  government,  Mr.  Web 
ster  felt  himself  compelled  to  withhold  from  it  his  support.  He 
rejoiced,  however,  in  the  concurrence  of  events  which  had  avert 
ed  the  dread  appeal  to  arms  that  seemed  at  one  time  una 
voidable. 

It  would  occupy  an  unreasonable  space  to  dwell  upon  every 
public  measure  before  Congress  at  this  session  ;  but  there  is  one 
which  cannot  with  propriety  be  passed  over,  as  it  drew  forth 
from  Mr.  Webster  an  argument  not  inferior  to  his  speech  on 
the  "  Force  Bill."  A  resolution,  originally  moved  by  Mr.  Clay, 
expressing  disapprobation  of  the  removal  of  the  deposits  from 
the  bank,  was,  after  material  amendments,  adopted  by  the 
Senate.  This  resolution  led  to  a  formal  protest  from  the  Pres 
ident,  communicated  to  the  Senate  on  the  15th  of  April,  1834. 
Looking  upon  the  resolution  referred  to  as  one  of  expediency, 
it  is  probable  that  Mr.  Webster  did  not  warmly  favor,  though, 
with  Mr.  Calhoun,  he  concurred  in,  its  passage.  The  protest 
of  the  President,  however,  placed  the  subject  on  new  ground 
Mr.  Webster  considered  it  as  an  encroachment  on  the  constitu 
tional  rights  of  the  Senate,  and  as  a  denial  to  that  body  of  the 
freedom  of  action  which  the  executive  claimed  so  earnestly  for 
itself.  He  accordingly  addressed  the  Senate  on  the  7th  of 
May,  in  a  speech  of  the  highest  ability,  in  which  the  doctrines 
of  the  protest  were  subjected  to  the  severest  scrutiny,  and  the 
constitutional  rights  and  duties  of  the  Senate  asserted  with  a 
force  and  spirit  worthy  of  the  important  position  occupied  by 
that  body  in  the  frame  of  the  government.  This  speech  will 
be  ever  memorable  for  that  sublime  passage  on  the  extent  of 
the  power  of  England,  which  will  be  quoted  with  admiration 
wherever  our  language  is  spoken  and  while  England  retains 
her  place  in  the  family  of  nations. 

This  speech  was  received  throughout  the  country  with  the 
highest  favor ;  by  the  most  distinguished  jurists  and  statesmen 
as  well  as  by  the  mass  of  the  people.  Chancellor  Kent's  lan 
guage  of  praise  passes  the  limits  of  moderation.  "  You  never," 
said  he,  "  equalled  this  effort.  It  surpasses  every  thing  in  logic, 
in  simplicity  and  beauty  and  energy  of  diction,  in  clearness,  in 


cxii        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

rebuke,  in  sarcasm,  in  patriotic  and  glowing  feeling,  in  just  and 
profound  constitutional  views,  in  critical  severity,  and  match 
less  strength.  It  is  worth  millions  to  our  liberties."  Not  less 
decided  was  the  approbation  of  a  gentleman  of  great  sagacity 
and  experience  as  a  statesman,  Governor  Tazewell  of  Virginia. 
In  writing  to  Mr.  Tyler  he  uses  this  language :  "  Tell  Web 
ster  from  me  that  I  have  read  his  speech  in  the  National  Intel 
ligencer  with  more  pleasure  than  any  I  have  lately  seen.  If 
the  approbation  of  one  who  has  not  been  used  to  coincide  with 
him  in  opinion  can  be  grateful  to  him,  he  has  mine  in  exlenso. 
I  agree  with  him  perfectly,  and  thank  him  cordially  for  his 
many  excellent  illustrations  of  what  I  always  thought.  If  it 
is  published  in  a  pamphlet  form,  beg  him  to  send  me  one.  I 
will  have  it  bound  in  good  Russia  leather,  and  leave  it  as  a 
special  legacy  to  my  children."  * 

At  the  same  session  of  Congress,  Mr.  Webster  spoke  fre 
quently  on  the  presentation  of  memorials,  which  were  poured 
in  upon  him  from  every  part  of  the  country,  in  reference  to  the 
existing  distress.  These  speeches  were  of  necessity  made,  in 
almost  every  case,  with  little  or  no  preparation,  but  many  of 
them  contain  expositions  of  the  operation  of  the  financial  ex 
periment  instituted  by  General  Jackson,  which  will  retain  a 
permanent  value  in  our  political  history.  Some  of  them  are 
marked  by  bursts  of  the  highest  eloquence.  The  entire  sub 
ject  of  the  currency  was  also  treated  with  great  ability  by  Mr. 
Webster,  in  a  report  made  at  this  session  of  Congress  from 
the  committee  of  the  Senate  on  finance,  of  which  he  was 
chairman.  Few  documents  more  skilfully  digested  or  power 
fully  reasoned  have  proceeded  from  his  pen. 

The  same  topics  substantially  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
Senate  at  the  Twenty-fourth  as  at  the  Twenty-third  Congress. 
The  principal  subjects  discussed  pertained  to  the  currency. 
The  specie  circular  and  the  distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue 
were  among  the  prominent  measures.  A  motion  made  in  the 
Senate  to  expunge  from  its  records  the  resolution  of  March, 
1834,  by  which  the  Senate  expressed  its  disapprobation  of  the 
removal  of  the  deposits,  drew  forth  from  Mr.  Webster,  on  behalf 
of  himself  and  his  colleague,  a  protest  against  that  measure,  of 

*  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress,  pp.  291,  292. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        cxiii 

singular  earnestness  and  power.  Committed  to  writing,  and 
read  with  unusual  solemnity,  it  produced  upon  the  Senate  an 
effect  which  is  still  remembered  and  spoken  of.  Every  word 
in  it  is  weighed  as  in  a  balance. 

The  administration  of  General  Jackson  was  drawing  to  a 
close ;  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  been  chosen  to  succeed  him  in  No 
vember,  1836.  In  the  month  of  February  following,  upon  an 
invitation  from  a  large  committee  of  merchants,  professional 
men,  and  citizens  generally  of  New  York,  given  some  months 
previous,  Mr.  Webster  attended  one  of  those  great  public  meet 
ings  which  he  has  been  so  often  called  to  address.  His  speech 
on  this  occasion,  delivered  in  Niblo's  Saloon  on  the  15th.  of 
March,  1837,  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  this  collection, 
It  embraced  a  comprehensive  review  of  the  entire  course  of 
General  Jackson's  policy,  and  closed  with  a  prediction  of  the 
impending  catastrophe.  After  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
Mr.  Webster  made  a  hasty  tour  to  the  West,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  addressed  large  public  meetings  at  Wheeling  in  Vir 
ginia,  at  Madison  in  Indiana,  and  at  other  places.  The  coinci 
dence  of  passing  events  with  all  his  anticipations  of  the  certain 
effects  of  the  administration  policy  gave  peculiar  force  to  these 
addresses.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  these  speeches  appear  from 
inadequate  reports ;  of  some  of  the  speeches  made  by  him  on 
this  tour,  no  notes  were  taken. 

Such  was  the  financial  embarrassment  induced  by  the  explo 
sion  of  the  system  of  the  late  administration,  that  President 
Van  Buren' s  first  official  act  was  a  proclamation  for  an  extra 
session  of  Congress,  to  be  held  in  September,  1837.  At  this 
session  the  new  government  plan  of  finance,  usually  called 
"  the  Sub-treasury  system,"  was  brought  forward.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Webster,  that  the  rigid  enforcement  by  the  gov 
ernment  of  a  system  of  specie  payments  in  all  its  public  re 
ceipts  and  expenditures  was  an  actual  impossibility,  in  the 
present  state  of  things  in  this  country  and  the  other  commer 
cial  countries  of  the  civilized  world.  The  attempt  to  reject  al 
together  the  aid  of  convertible  paper,  of  bills  of  exchange,  of 
drafts,  and  other  substitutes  for  the  use  and  transportation  of 
che  precious  metals,  must  fail  in  practice  in  a  commercial 
country,  where  the  great  mass  of  the  business  affairs  of  the 
community  are  transacted  with  their  aid.  If  the  attempt  could 


cxiv        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

be  forced  through,  it  would  be  like  an  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  government  to  make  use  of  the  ancient  modes  of  travel  and 
conveyance,  while  every  citizen  in  his  private  affairs  enjoyed 
the  benefit  of  steam  navigation  and  railways.  Mr.  Webster 
accordingly  opposed  the  sub-treasury  project  from  its  incep 
tion;  and  it  failed  to  become  a  law  at  the  extra  session  of 
Congress  in  1837. 

Somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  the  country  generally,  it  received 
the  support  of  Mr.  Calhoun.  In  common  with  most  of  his 
friends,  he  had  sustained  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
denounced  the  financial  policy  of  General  Jackson  at  every 
stage.  But  at  the  extra  session  of  Congress  he  expressed  opin 
ions  favorable  to  the  sub-treasury,  and  followed  them  up  in  a 
remarkable  letter  to  his  constituents,  published  after  the  ad 
journment.  At  the  winter  session  of  1837-38  he  defended  the 
government  plan  in  an  elaborate  speech.  This  speech  drew 
from  Mr.  Webster  a  very  able  reply.  He  had,  earlier  in  the 
session,  delivered  his  sentiments  in  opposition  to  the  govern 
ment  measure,  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  his  speech  of  the  15th 
of  February,  1838,  had  animadverted  upon  them,  and  repre 
sented  the  sub-treasury  system  as  little  more  than  an  attempt 
to  carry  out  the  joint  resolution  of  the  30th  of  April,  1816, 
which,  as  we  have  seen  above,  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Webster, 
and  was  the  immediate  means  of  restoring  specie  payments 
after  the  war. 

This  reference,  as  well  as  the  whole  tenor  of  Mr.  Calhoun's 
remarks,  called  upon  Mr.  Webster  for  a  rejoinder,  which  was 
made  by  him  on  the  12th  of  March.  It  is  the  most  elaborate 
and  effective  of  Mr.  Webster's  speeches  on  the  subject  of  the 
currency.*  The  constitutional  right  of  the  general  government 
to  employ  a  convertible  paper  in  its  fiscal  transactions,  and  to 
make  use  of  banks  in  the  custody  and  transmission  of  its  funds, 
is  argued  in  this  speech  with  much  ability,  from  the  necessity 


*  Not  long  after  the  publication  of  this  speech,  the  present  Lord  Overstone, 
then  Mr.  S.  Jones  Lloyd,  one  of  the  highest  authorities  upon  financial  subjects 
in  England,  was  examined  upon  the  subject  of  banks  and  currency  before  a  com 
mittee  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He  produced  a  copy  of  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Webster  before  the  committee,  and  pronounced  it  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  sat 
isfactory  discussions  of  these  subjects  which  he  had  seen.  In  writing  after 
wards  to  Mr.  Webster,  he  spoke  of  him  as  a  master  who  had  instructed  him  on 
these  subjects. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          Cxv 

of  the  case,  from  the  contemporaneous  expositions  of  the  Con 
stitution,  from  the  practice  of  the  government  under  every  ad 
ministration,  from  the  expressed  views  and  opinions  of  every 
President  of  the  United  States,  including  General  Jackson,  and 
from  the  often-declared  opinions  of  all  the  leading  statesmen 
of  the  country,  not  excepting  Mr.  Calhoun  himself,  whose 
course  in  this  respect  was  reviewed  by  Mr.  Webster  somewhat 
at  length,  and  in  such  a  way  as  unavoidably  to  suggest  the  idea 
of  inconsistency,  although  no  such  charge  was  made. 

To  some  portions  of  this  speech  Mr.  Calhoun  replied  a  few 
weeks  afterwards,  and  sought  to  ward  off  the  comments  upon 
his  own  course  in  reference  to  this  class  of  questions,  by  some 
severe  strictures  on  that  of  Mr.  Webster.  This  drew  from  him 
a  prompt  and  spirited  rejoinder.  The  following  passage  may 
be  extracted  as  a  specimen  :  — 

"  But,  Sir,  before  attempting  that,  he  [Mr.  Calhoun]  has  something  else 
to  say.  He  had  prepared,  it  seems,  to  draw  comparisons  himself.  He 
had  intended  to  say  something,  if  time  had  allowed,  upon  our  respective 
opinions  and  conduct  in  regard  to  the  war.  If  time  had  allowed  !  Sir, 
time  does  allow,  time  must  allow.  A  general  remark  of  that  kind 
ought  not  to  be,  cannot  be,  left  to  produce  its  effect,  when  that  effect  is 
obviously  intended  to  be  unfavorable.  Why  did  the  gentleman  allude  to 
my  votes  or  my  opinions  respecting  the  war  at  all,  unless  he  had  some 
thing  to  say  ?  Does  he  wish  to  leave  an  undefined  impression  that  some 
thing  was  done,  or  something  said,  by  me,  not  now  capable  of  defence  or 
justification  ?  something  not  reconcilable  with  true  patriotism  ?  He  means 
that,  or  nothing.  And  now,  Sir,  let  him  bring  the  matter  forth ;  let  him 
take  the  responsibility  of  the  accusation ;  let  him  state  his  facts.  I  am 
here  to  answer;  I  am  here,  this  day, to  answer.  Now  is  the  time,  and 
now  the  hour.  I  think  we  read,  Sir,  that  one  of  the  good  spirits  would 
not  bring  against  the  Arch-enemy  of  mankind  a  railing  accusation ;  and 
what  is  railing  but  general  reproach,  an  imputation  without  fact,  time, 
or  circumstance  ?  Sir,  I  call  for  particulars.  The  gentleman  knows  my 
whole  conduct  well ;  indeed,  the  journals  show  it  all,  from  the  moment 
I  came  into  Congress  till  the  peace.  If  I  have  done,  then,  Sir,  any  thing 
unpatriotic,  any  thing  which,  as  far  as  love  to  country  goes,  will  not 
bear  comparison  with  his  or  any  man's  conduct,  let  it  now  be  stated. 
Give  me  the  fact,  the  time,  the  manner.  He  speaks  of  the  war;  that 
which  we  call  the  late  war,  though  it  is  now  twenty-five  years  since  it 
terminated.  He  would  leave  an  impression  that  I  opposed  it.  How  ? 
I  was  not  in  Congress  when  war  was  declared,  nor  in  public  life  any- 


cxvi        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

where.  I  was  pursuing  my  profession,  keeping  company  with  judges 
and  jurors,  and  plaintiffs  and  defendants.  If  I  had  been  in  Congress, 
and  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  hearing  the  honorable  gentleman's  speech 
es,  for  aught  I  can  say,  I  might  have  concurred  with  him.  But  I  was 
not  in  public  life.  I  never  had  been  for  a  single  hour ;  and  was  in  no  sit 
uation,  therefore,  to  oppose  or  to  support  the  declaration  of  war.  I  am 
speaking  to  the  fact,  Sir;  and  if  the  gentleman  has  any  fact,  let  us  know  it. 

"  Well,  Sir,  I  carne  into  Congress  during  the  war.  I  found  it  waged, 
and  raging.  And  what  did  I  do  here  to  oppose  it  ?  Look  to  the  jour 
nals.  Let  the  honorable  gentleman  tax  his  memory.  Bring  up  any 
thing,  if  there  be  any  thing  to  bring  up,  not  showing  error  of  opinion, 
but  showing  want  of  loyalty  or  fidelity  to  the  country.  I  did  not  agree 
to  all  that  was  proposed,  nor  did  the  honorable  member.  I  did  not  ap 
prove  of  every  measure,  nor  did  he.  The  war  had  been  preceded  by 
the  restrictive  system  and  the  embargo.  As  a  private  individual,  I  cer 
tainly  did  not  think  well  of  these  measures.  It  appeared  to  me  that  the 
embargo  annoyed  ourselves  as  much  as  our  enemies,  while  it  destroyed 
the  business  and  cramped  the  spirits  of  the  people.  In  this  opinion  I 
may  have  been  right  or  wrong,  but  the  gentleman  was  himself  of  the 
same  opinion.  He  told  us  the  other  day,  as  a  proof  of  his  independence 
of  party  on  great  questions,  that  he  differed  with  his  friends  on  the  sub 
ject  of  the  embargo.  He  was  decidedly  and  unalterably  opposed  to  it. 
It  furnishes  in  his  judgment,  therefore,  no  imputation  either  on  my 
patriotism,  or  on  the  soundness  of  my  political  opinions,  that  I  was  op 
posed  to  it  also.  I  mean  opposed  in  opinion ;  for  I  was  not  in  Con 
gress,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  act  creating  the  embargo.  And 
as  to  opposition  to  measures  for  carrying  on  the  war,  after  I  came  into 
Congress,  I  again  say,  let  the  gentleman  specify ;  let  him  lay  his  finger 
on  any  thing  calling  for  an  answer,  and  he  shall  have  an  answer. 

"  Mr.  President,  you  were  yourself  in  the  House  during  a  considerable 
part  of  this  time.  The  honorable  gentleman  may  make  a  witness  of  you. 
He  may  make  a  witness  of  any  body  else.  He  may  be  his  own  witness. 
Gii  e  us  but  some  fact,  some  charge,  something  capable  in  itself  either 
of  being  proved  or  disproved.  Prove  any  thing,  state  any  thing,  not  con 
sistent  with  honorable  and  patriotic  conduct,  and  I  am  ready  to  answer  it. 
Sir,  I  am  glad  this  subject  has  been  alluded  to  in  a  manner  which  justifies 
me  in  taking  public  notice  of  it ;  because  I  am  well  aware  that,  for  ten 
years  past,  infinite  pains  has  been  taken  to  find  something,  in  the  range 
of  these  topics,  which  might  create  prejudice  against  me  in  the  country. 
The  journals  have  all  been  pored  over,  and  the  reports  ransacked,  and 
scraps  of  paragraphs  and  half-sentences  have  been  collected,  fraud 
ulently  put  together,  and  then  made  to  flare  out  as  if  there  had  been 
some  discovery.  But  all  this  failed.  The  next  resort  was  to  supposed 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.       cxvii 

correspondence.  My  letters  were  sought  for,  to  learn  if,  in  the  confi 
dence  of  private  friendship,  I  had  ever  said  any  thing  which  an  enemy 
could  make  use  of.  With  this  view,  the  vicinity  of  my  former  residence 
has  been  searched,  as  with  a  lighted  candle.  New  Hampshire  has  been 
explored  from  the  rnouth  of  the  Merrimack  to  the  White  Hills.  In  one 
instance,  a  gentleman  had  left  the  State,  gone  five  hundred  miles  off, 
and  died.  His  papers  were  examined  ;  a  letter  was  found,  and,  I  have 
understood,  it  was  brought  to  Washington  ;  a  conclave  was  held  to  con 
sider  it,  and  the  result  was,  that,  if  there  was  nothing  else  against  Mr. 
Webster,  the  matter  had  better  be  let  alone.  Sir,  I  hope  to  make  every 
body  of  that  opinion  who  brings  against  me  a  charge  of  want  of  patriot 
ism.  Errors  of  opinion  can  be  found,  doubtless,  on  many  subjects ;  but 
as  conduct  flows  from  the  feelings  which  animate  the  heart,  I  know  that 
no  act  of  my  life  has  had  its  origin  in  the  want  of  ardent  love  of  country." 

This  is  the  only  occasion  during  the  long  political  lives  of 
these  distinguished  statesmen,  begun  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
and  continued  through  a  Congressional  career  which  brought 
them  of  necessity  much  in  contact  with  each  other,  in  which 
there  was  any  approach  to  personality  in  their  keen  encoun 
ters.  In  fact,  of  all  the  highly  eminent  public  men  of  the  day, 
they  are  the.  individuals  who  have  made  the  least  use  of  the 
favorite  weapon  of  ordinary  politicians,  personality  toward  op 
ponents.  On  the  decease  of  Mr.  Calhoun  at  Washington,  in 
the  spring  of  1850,  their  uninterrupted  friendly  relations  were 
alluded  to  by  Mr.  Webster  in  cordial  and  affecting  terms.  He 
regarded  Mr.  Calhoun  as  decidedly  the  ablest  of  the  public  men 
to  whom  he  had  been  opposed  in  the  course  of  his  political  life. 

These  kindly  feelings  on  Mr.  Webster's  part  were  fully  recip 
rocated  by  Mr.  Calhoun.  He  is  known  to  have  declared  on 
his  death-bed,  that,  of  all  the  public  men  of  the  day,  there  was 
no  one  whose  political  course  had  been  more  strongly  marked  by 
a  strict  regard  to  truth  and  honor  than  Mr.  Webster's. 

In  the  spring  of  1839,  Mr.  Webster  crossed  the  Atlantic  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life,  making  a  hasty  tour  through  England, 
Scotland,  and  France.  His  attention  was  particularly  drawn  to 
the  agriculture  of  England  and  Scotland ;  to  the  great  subjects 
of  currency  and  exchange ;  to  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes ;  and  to  the  practical  effect  on  the  politics  of  Europe  of 
the  system  of  the  Continental  alliance.  No  traveller  from  this 
country  has  probably  ever  been  received  with  equal  attention 


cxviii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

in  the  highest  quarters  in  England.  Courtesies  usually  paid 
only  to  ambassadors  and  foreign  ministers  were  extended  to  him. 
His  table  was  covered  with  invitations  to  the  seats  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry ;  and  his  company  was  eagerly  sought  at  the  public 
entertainments  which  took  place  while  he  was  in  the  country. 
Among  the  distinguished  individuals  with  whom  he  contracted 
intimate  relations  of  friendship,  the  late  Lord  Ashburton  may  be 
particularly  mentioned.  A  mutual  regard  of  more  than  usual 
warmth  arose  between  them.  This  circumstance  was  well 
understood  in  the  higher  circles  of  English  society,  and  when, 
two  years  later,  a  change  of  administration  in  both  countries 
brought  the  parties  to  which  they  were  respectively  attached 
into  power,  the  friendly  relations  well  known  to  exist  between 
them  were  no  doubt  among  the  motives  which  led  to  the  ap 
pointment  of  Lord  Ashburton  as  special  minister  to  the  United 
States. 

Toward  that  great  political  change  which  was  consummated 
in  1840,  by  which  General  Harrison  was  raised  to  the  Pres 
idency,  no  individual  probably  in  the  country  had  contributed 
more  largely  than  Mr.  Webster;  and  this  by  powerful  appeals 
to  the  reason  of  the  people.  His  speeches  had  been  for  years 
a  public  armory,  from  which  weapons  both  of  attack  and  de 
fence  were  furnished  to  his  political  friends  throughout  the  Un 
ion.  The  financial  policy  of  the  two  preceding  administra 
tions  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  general  discontent  which  pre 
vailed  ;  and  it  is  doing  no  injustice  to  the  other  eminent  leaders 
of  opposition  in  the  several  States  to  say,  that  by  none  of 
them  had  the  vices  of  this  system  from  the  first  been  so  labo 
riously  and  effectively  exposed  as  by  Mr.  Webster.  During  the 
canvass  of  1840,  the  most  strenuous  ever  witnessed  in  the  United 
States,  he  gave  himself  up  for  months  to  what  may  literally  be 
called  the  arduous  labor  of  the  field.  These  volumes  exhibit 
the  proof,  that  not  only  in  Massachusetts,  but  in  distant  places, 
from  Albany  to  Richmond,  his  voice  of  encouragement  and  ex 
hortation  was  heard. 

The  event  corresponded  to  the  effort,  and  General  Harrison 
was  triumphantly  elected. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        cxix 


CHAPTER    VIIL* 

Critical  State  of  Foreign  Affairs  on  the  Accession  of  General  Harrison.  —  Mr.  Web 
ster  appointed  to  the  State  Department. — Death  of  General  Harrison.  —  Embar* 
rassed  Relations  with  England.  —  Formation  of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Ministry,  and 
Appointment  of  Lord  Ashburton  as  Special  Minister  to  the  United  States.  — 
Course  pursued  by  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Negotiations.  —  The  Northeastern  Boun 
dary.  —  Peculiar  Difficulties  in  its  Settlement  happily  overcome.  —  Other  Subjects 
of  Negotiation.  —  Extradition  of  Fugitives  from  Justice.  —  Suppression  of  the 
Slave-Trade  on  the  Coast  of  Africa.  —  History  of  that  Question.  —  Affair  of  the 
Caroline.  —  Impressment.  —  Other  Subjects  connected  with  the  Foreign  Relations 
of  the  Government.  —  Intercourse  with  China.  —  Independence  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  —  Correspondence  with  Mexico.  —  Sound  Duties  and  the  Zoll-Verein.  — 
Importance  of  Mr.  Webster's  Services  as  Secretary  of  State. 

THE  condition  of  affairs  in  the  United  States,  on  the  acces 
sion  of  President  Harrison  to  office,  in  the  spring  of  1841,  was 
difficult  and  critical,  especially  as  far  as  the  foreign  relations  of 
the  country  were  concerned.  Ancient  and  modern  controversies 
existed  with  England,  which  seemed  to  defy  adjustment.  The 
great  question  of  the  northeastern  boundary  had  been  the  sub 
ject  of  negotiation  almost  ever  since  the  peace  of  1783.  Every 
effort  to  settle  it  had  but  increased  the  difficulties  with  which  it 
was  beset,  by  exhausting  the  expedients  of  diplomacy.  The 
Oregon  question  was  rapidly  assuming  a  formidable  aspect,  as 
emigrants  began  to  move  into  the  country  in  dispute.  Not  less 
serious  was  the  state  of  affairs  on  the  southwestern  frontier, 
where,  although  a  collision  with  Mexico  might  not  in  itself  be 
an  event  to  be  viewed  with  great  anxiety,  it  was  probable,  as 
things  then  stood,  that  it  would  have  brought  a  war  with  Great 
Britain  in  its  train. 

To  the  uneasiness  necessarily  growing  out  of  these  boundary 
questions,  no  little  bitterness  was  added  by  more  recent  occur 
rences.  The  interruption  of  our  vessels  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
was  a  frequently  recurring  source  of  irritation.  Great  cause  of 
complaint  was  sometimes  given  by  boarding  officers,  acting  on 
frivolous  pretences  or  in  a  vexatious  manner.  At  other  times 

*  This  chapter  is  republished,  with  but  slight  modifications,  from  the  volume 
of  Mr.  Webster's  Diplomatic  and  Official  Papers  which  appeared  in  1848,  to 
which  it  served  as  the  Introduction. 


Cxx         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

the  public  feeling  in  the  United  States  was  excited  by  the  exag 
gerations  and  misstatements  of  unworthy  American  citizens, 
who  abused  the  flag  of  the  country  to  cover  a  detestable  traffic, 
which  is  made  a  capital  felony  by  its  laws.  The  affair  of  the 
"  Caroline,"  followed  by  the  arrest  of  McLeod,  created  a  degree 
of  discontent  on  both  sides,  which  discussion  had  done  nothing 
to  remove,  but  much  to  exasperate.  A  crisis  had  arisen,  which 
the  Minister  of  the  United  States  in  London  *  deemed  so  seri 
ous,  as  to  make  it  his  duty  to  communicate  with  the  commander 
of  the  American  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean.! 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  General  Harrison  acceded 
to  the  Presidency,  after  perhaps  the  most  strenuously  contested 
election  ever  known,  and  by  a  larger  popular  vote  than  had 
ever  before  been  given  in  the  United  States.  As  soon  as  the 
result  was  known,  the  President  elect  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Webster,  offering  him  any  place  he  might  choose  in  his  Cabinet, 
and  asking  his  advice  as  to  the  other  members  of  which  it  should 
be  composed.  The  wants  and  wishes  of  the  country  in  refer 
ence  to  currency  and  finance  having  brought  about  the  political 
revolution  which  placed  General  Harrison  in  the  chair,  he  was 
rather  desirous  that  the  Department  of  the  Treasury  should  be 
assumed  by  Mr.  Webster,  who  had  studied  those  subjects  pro 
foundly,  and  whose  opinions  were  in  full  concurrence  with  his 
own.  Averse  to  the  daily  drudgery  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Web 
ster  gave  his  preference  to  the  Department  of  State,  without 
concealing  from  himself  that  it  might  be  the  post  of  greater  care 
and  responsibility.  In  this  anticipation  he  was  not  disap 
pointed.  Although  the  whole  of  the  danger  did  not  at  once 
appear,  it  was  evident  from  the  outset  that  the  moment  was  ex 
tremely  critical.  Still,  however,  the  circumstances  under  which 
General  Harrison  was  elected  were  such  as  to  give  to  his  ad 
ministration  a  moral  power  and  a  freedom  of  action,  as  to  pre 
existing  controversies,  favorable  to  their  settlement  on  honorable 
terms. 

But  the  death  of  the  new  President,  when  just  entering  upon 
the  discharge  of  his  duties,  changed  the  state  of  affairs  in  this 
respect.  The  great  national  party  which  had  called  him  to  the 
helm  was  struck  with  astonishment.  No  rallying-point  pre- 

*  Mr.  Stevenson. 

f  Senate  Papers,  Twenty-seventh  Congress,  First  Session,  No.  33. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER.       Cxxi 

sented  itself.  A  position  of  things  existed,  not  overlooked, 
indeed,  by  the  sagacious  men  who  framed  the  Constitution,  but 
which,  from  its  very  nature,  can  never  enter  practically  into  the 
calculations  of  the  enthusiastic  multitudes  by  which,  in  times 
of  difficulty  and  excitement,  a  favorite  candidate  is  borne  to  the 
chair.  How  much  of  the  control  which  it  would  otherwise 
have  possessed  over  public  opinion  could  be  retained  by  an  ad 
ministration  thus  unexpectedly  deprived  of  its  head,  was  a  ques 
tion  which  time  alone  could  settle.  Happily,  as  far  as  our 
foreign  relations  were  concerned,  a  character  had  been  assumed 
by  the  administration,  from  the  very  formation  of  General  Har 
rison's  Cabinet,  which  was  steadily  maintained,  till  the  adjust 
ment  of  the  most  difficult  points  in  controversy  was  effected  by 
the  treaty  of  Washington.  President  Harrison,  as  is  well 
known,  lived  but  one  month  after  his  inauguration,  but  all  the 
membeis  of  his  Cabinet  remained  in  office  under  Mr.  Tyler,  who 
succeeded  to  the  Presidency.  With  him,  of  course,  rested  the 
general  authority  of  regulating  and  directing  the  negotiations 
with  foreign  powers,  in  which  the  government  might  be  en 
gaged.  But  the  active  management  of  these  negotiations  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  it  is  believed  that 
no  difference  of  views  in  regard  to  important  matters  arose  be 
tween  him  and  Mr.  Tyler.  For  the  result  of  the  princ.;oal 
negotiation,  Mr.  Tyler  manifested  great  anxiety ;  and  Mr.  W  ?b- 
ster  has  not  failed,  in  public  or  private,  to  bear  witness  to  the 
intelligent  and  earnest  attention  which  was  bestowed  by  him 
on  the  proceedings,  through  all  their  stages,  and  to  express  his 
sense  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  himself  by  the  head  of  the 
administration,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  transac 
tions. 

If  the  position  of  things  was  difficult  here,  it  was  not  less  so 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic ;  indeed,  many  of  the  causes 
of  embarrassment  were  common  to  the  two  countries.  There, 
as  here,  the  correspondence,  whether  conducted  at  Washington 
or  London,  had  of  late  years  done  nothing  toward  an  amicable 
settlement  of  the  great  questions  at  issue.  It  had  degenerated 
into  an  exercise  of  diplomatic  logic,  with  the  effect,  in  Eng 
land  as  well  as  in  America,  of  strengthening  each  party  in  the 
belief  of  its  own  rights,  and  of  working  up  the  public  mind  to 
a  reluctant  feeling  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when  those  rights 

VOL.  i.  k 


cxxii     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

must  be  maintained  by  force.  That  the  British  and  American 
governments,  during  a  considerable  part  of  the  administrations 
of  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  should,  with  the  fate 
of  the  reference  to  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  before  their 
eyes,  have  exerted  themselves  with  melancholy  ingenuity  in 
arranging  the  impossible  details  of  another  convention  of  ex 
ploration  and  arbitration,  shows  of  itself  that  neither  party  had 
any  real  hope  of  actually  settling  the  controversy,  but  that  both 
were  willing  to  unite  in  a  decent  pretext  for  procrastination. 

The  report  of  Mr.  Featherstonhaugh,  erroneously  believed,  in 
England,  to  rest  upon  the  results  of  actual  exploration,  had 
been  sanctioned  by  the  ministry,  and  seemed  to  extinguish  the 
last  hope  that  England  would  agree  to  any  terms  of  settlement 
which  the  United  States  would  deem  reasonable.  The  danger 
of  collision  on  the  frontier  became  daily  more  imminent,  and 
troops  to  the  amount  of  seventeen  regiments  had  been  poured 
into  the  British  Provinces.  The  arrest  of  McLeod,  as  we  have 
already  observed,  had  brought  matters  to  a  point  at  which  the 
public  sensibility  of  England  would  riot  have  allowed  a  min 
ister  to  blink  the  question.  Lord  Palmerston  is  known  to  have 
written  to  Mr.  Fox,  that  the  arrest  of  McLeod,  under  the 
authority  of  the  State  of  New  York,  was  universally  regarded 
in  England  as  a  direct  affront  to  the  British  government,  and 
that  such  was  the  excitement  caused  by  it,  that,  if  McLeod 
should  be  condemned  and  executed,  it  would  not  be  in  the 
power  either  of  ministers  or  opposition,  or  of  the  leading  men 
of  both  parties,  to  prevent  immediate  war. 

While  this  was  the  state  of  affairs  with  reference  to  the  im 
mediate  relations  of  the  two  countries,  Lord  Palmerston  was 
urging  France  into  a  cooperation  with  the  four  other  leading 
powers  of  Europe  in  the  adoption  of  a  policy,  by  the  negotia 
tion  of  the  quintuple  treaty,  which  would  have  left  the  United 
States  in  a  position  of  dangerous  insulation  on  the  subject  of 
the  great  maritime  question  of  the  day. 

At  this  juncture,  a  change  of  administration  occurred  in  Eng 
land,  subsequent  but  by  a  few  months  to  that  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  government  of  the  United  States.  Lord  Mel 
bourne's  government  gave  way  to  that  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  in 
the  summer  of  1841 ;  it  remained  to  be  seen  with  what  influ 
ence  on  the  relations  of  the  two  countries.  Some  circumstances 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxxiii 

occurred  to  put  at  risk  the  tendency  toward  an  accommodation, 
which  might  naturally  be  hoped  for  from  a  change  of  adminis 
tration  nearly  simultaneous  on  both  sides  of  the  water.  A  note 
of  a  very  uncompromising  character,  on  the  subject  of  the  search 
of  American  vessels  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  had  been  addressed 
to  Mr.  Stevenson  by  Lord  Palmerston  on  the  27th  of  August, 
1841,  a  day  only  before  the  expiration  of  Lord  Melbourne's 
ministry.  To  this  note  Mr.  Stevenson  replied  in  the  same  strain. 
The  answer  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  who  had  succeeded  Lord  Palm 
erston  as  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  bears  date  the 
10th  of  October,  1841,  and  an  elaborate  rejoinder  was  returned 
by  Mr.  Stevenson  on  the  very  day  of  his  departure  from  London. 
Lord  Aberdeen's  reply  to  this  note  was  of  necessity  addressed 
to  Mr.  Everett,  who  had  succeeded  Mr.  Stevenson.  It  was 
dated  on  the  20th  of  December,  the  day  on  which  the  quintuple 
treaty  was  signed  at  London  by  the  representatives  of  the  five 
powers,  and  it  contained  an  announcement  of  that  fact. 

Happily,  however,  affairs  were  already  taking  a  turn  auspi 
cious  of  better  results.  From  his  first  entrance  on  office  as 
Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Webster,  long  familiar  with  the  per 
plexed  history  of  the  negotiation  relative  to  the  boundary,  had 
perceived  the  necessity  of  taking  a  "  new  departure."  The  ne 
gotiation  had  broken  down  under  its  own  weight.  It  was  like 
one  of  those  lawsuits  which,  to  the  opprobrium  of  tribunals, 
descend  from  age  to  age;  a  disease  of  the  body  politic  not 
merely  chronic,  but  hereditary.  Early  in  the  summer  of  1841, 
Mr.  Webster  had  intimated  to  Mr.  Fox,  the  British  Minister  at 
Washington,  that  the  American  government  was  prepared  to 
consider,  and,  if  practicable,  adopt,  a  conventional  line,  as  the 
only  mode  of  cutting  the  Gordian  knot  of  the  controversy.  This 
overture  was,  of  course,  conveyed  to  London.  Though  not 
leading  to  any  result  on  the  part  of  the  ministry  just  going  out 
of  office,  it  was  embraced  by  their  successors  in  the  same  wise 
and  conciliatory  spirit  in  which  it  had  been  made.  On  the  26th 
of  December,  1841,  a  note  was  addressed  by  Lord  Aberdeen  to 
Mr.  Everett,  inviting  him  to  an  interview  on  the  following  day, 
when  he  communicated  the  purpose  of  the  British  government 
to  send  a  special  mission  to  the  United  States,  Lord  Ashbur- 
ton  being  the  person  selected  as  minister,  and  furnished  with 
full  powers  to  settle  every  question  in  controversy. 


cxxiv       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

This  step  on  the  part  of  the  British  government  was  as  bold 
as  it  was  wise.  It  met  the  difficulty  in  the  face.  It  justly  as 
sumed  the  existence  of  a  corresponding  spirit  of  conciliation  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  of  a  desire  to  bring  matters 
to  a  practical  result.  It  was  bold,  because  it  was  the  last  ex 
pedient  for  an  amicable  adjustment,  and  because  its  failure 
must  necessarily  lead  to  very  serious  and  immediate  conse 
quences. 

In  his  choice  of  a  minister,  Lord  Aberdeen  was  not  less  for 
tunate  than  he  had  been  wise  in  proposing  the  measure.  Lord 
Ashburton  was  above  the  reach  of  the  motives  which  influence 
politicians  of  an  ordinary  stamp,  and  unencumbered  by  the 
habits  of  routine  which  belong  to  men  regularly  trained  in  a 
career.  He  possessed  a  weight  of  character  at  home  which 
made  him  independent  of  the  vulgar  resorts  of  popularity.  He 
was  animated  by  a  kindly  feeling,  and  bound  by  kindly  associa 
tions  to  this  country.  There  was  certainly  no  public  man  in 
England  who  united  in  an  equal  degree  the  confidence  of  his 
.own  government  and  country  with  those  claims  to  the  good-will 
of  the  opposite  party,  which  were  scarcely  less  essential  to  suc 
cess.  The  relations  of  personal  friendship  contracted  by  Mr. 
Webster  with  Lord  Ashburton  in  1839  have  already  been  al 
luded  to,  as  influencing  the  selection.  They  decided  Lord  Ash 
burton  in  accepting  the  appointment.  The  writer  was  informed 
by  Lord  Ashburton  himself,  that  he  should  have  despaired  of 
bringing  matters  to  a  settlement  advantageous  to  both  countries, 
but  for  his  reliance  on  the  upright  and  honorable  character  of 
the  American  Secretary. 

"With  the  appointment  of  Lord  Ashburton,  the  discussion  of 
the  main  questions  in  controversy  between  the  two  countries, 
as  far  as  it  had  been  carried  on  in  London,  was  transferred  to 
Washington.  But  as  an  earnest  of  the  conciliatory  spirit  which 
bore  sway  in  the  British  counsels,  Lord  Aberdeen  had  an 
nounced  to  Mr.  Everett,  in  the  interval  which  elapsed  between 
Lord  Ashburton's  appointment  and  his  arrival  at  his  place  of 
destination,  that  the  Queen's  government  admitted  the  wrong 
done  by  the  detention  of  the  "  Tigris  "  and  "  Seamew  "  in  the 
African  waters,  and  was  prepared  to  indemnify  their  owners  for 
the  losses  sustained. 

Notwithstanding  the   favorable   circumstances   under  which 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         Cxxv 

the  mission  of  Lord  Ashburton  was  instituted,  the  great  diffi 
culties  to  be  overcome  soon  disclosed  themselves.  The  points 
in  dispute  in  reference  to  the  boundary  had  for  years  been 
the  subject  of  discussion,  more  or  less,  throughout  the  country, 
but  especially  in  Massachusetts  and  Maine  ( the  States  having 
an  immediate  territorial  interest  in  its  decision),  and,  above  all, 
in  the  last-named  State.  Parties  differing  on  all  other  great 
questions  emulated  each  other  in  the  zeal  with  which  they  as 
serted  the  American  side  of  this  dispute.  So  strong  and  unani 
mous  was  the  feeling,  that,  when  the  award  of  the  King  of  the 
Netherlands  arrived,  the  firm  purpose  of  General  Jackson  to  ac 
cept  it  was  subdued.  The  writer  of  these  pages  was  informed 
by  the  late  Mr.  Forsyth,  while  Secretary  of  State,  that,  when 
the  award  reached  this  country,  General  Jackson  regarded  it  as 
definitive,  and  was  disposed,  without  consulting  the  Senate,  to 
issue  his  proclamation  announcing  it  as  such ;  and  that  he  was 
driven  from  this  course  by  the  representations  of  his  friends  in 
Maine,  that  it  would  change  the  politics  of  the  State.  He  was 
accustomed  to  add,  in  reference  to  the  inconveniences  caused  by 
the  rejection  of  the  award,  and  the  still  more  serious  evils  to  be 
anticipated,  that  "  it  was  somewhat  singular  that  the  only  occa 
sion  of  importance  in  his  life  in  which  he  had  allowed  himself 
to  be  overruled  by  his  friends,  was  one  of  all  others  in  which  he 
ought  to  have  adhered  to  his  own  opinions." 

From  the  diplomatic  papers  contained  in  the  sixth  volume  of 
the  present  edition  of  Mr.  Webster's  works  it  appears  that  the 
first  step  taken  by  Mr.  Webster,  after  receiving  the  directions  of 
the  President  in  reference  to  the  negotiation,  was  to  invite  the 
cooperation  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine,  the  territory  in  dispute 
being  the  property  of  the  two  States,  and  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  latter.  The  extent  of  the  treaty-making  power  of  the 
United  States,  in  a  matter  of  such  delicacy  as  the  cession  of 
territory  claimed  by  a  State  to  be  within  its  limits,  belongs  to 
the  more  difficult  class  of  constitutional  doctrines.  We  have 
just  seen  both  the  theory  and  practice  of  General  Jackson  on 
this  point.  The  administration  of  Mr.  Tyler  took  for  granted 
that  the  full  consent  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine  was  necessary 
to  any  adjustment  of  this  great  dispute  on  the  principle  of  mu 
tual  cession  and  equivalents,  or  any  other  principle  than  that 
of  the  ascertainment  of  the  true,  original  line  of  boundary  bv 
k* 


cxxvi      BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

agreement,  mutual  commission,  or  arbitration.  Communica 
tions  were  accordingly  addressed  to  the  governors  of  the  two 
States.  Massachusetts  had  anticipated  the  necessity  of  the 
measure,  and  made  provision  for  the  appointment  of  commis 
sioners.  The  legislature  of  Maine  was  promptly  convened  for 
the  same  purpose  by  the  late  Governor  Fairfield.  Four  par 
ties  were  thus  in  presence  at  Washington  for  the  manage 
ment  of  the  negotiation :  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
Massachusetts  and  Maine.  Recollecting  that  the  question  to 
be  settled  was  one  which  had  defied  all  the  arts  of  diplomacy 
for  half  a  century,  it  seemed  to  a  distant,  and  especially  a  Eu 
ropean  observer,  as  if  the  last  experiment,  exceeding  every 
former  step  in  its  necessary  complication,  was  destined  to  a  fail 
ure  proportionably  signal  and  ignominious.  The  course  pur 
sued  by  the  American  Secretary,  in  making  the  result  of  the 
negotiation  relative  to  the  boundary  contingent  upon  the  ap 
proval  of  the  State  commissioners,  was  regarded  in  Europe  as 
decidedly  ominous  of  its  failure. 

It  undoubtedly  required  a  high  degree  of  political  courage 
thus  to  put  the  absolute  control  of  the  subject,  to  a  certain  ex 
tent,  out  of  the  hands  of  the  national  government ;  but  it  was 
a  courage  fully  warranted  by  the  event.  It  is  now  evident  that 
this  mode  of  procedure  was  the  only  one  which  could  have  been 
adopted  with  any  hope  of  success.  Though  complicated  in  ap 
pearance,  it  was  in  reality  the  simplest  mode  in  which  the  coop 
eration  of  the  States  could  have  been  secured.  The  commis 
sions  were,  upon  the  whole,  happily  constituted;  they  were 
framed  in  each  State  without  reference  to  party  views.  By 
their  presence  in  Washington,  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  State  to  avail  himself,  at  every  difficult  conjuncture, 
of  their  counsel.  Limited  in  number,  they  yet  represented  the 
public  opinion  of  the  two  States,  as  fully  as  it  could  have  been 
done  by  the  entire  body  of  their  legislatures ;  while  it  is  quite 
evident  that  any  attempt  to  refer  to  large  deliberative  bodies  at 
home  the  discussion  of  the  separate  points  which  arose  in  the 
negotiation,  would  have  been  physically  impossible  and  politi 
cally  absurd.  The  commissioners  were,  on  the  part  of  Maine, 
Messrs.  Edward  Kavanagh,  Edward  Kent,  William  P.  Preble, 
and  John  Otis ;  and  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts,  Messrs.  Abbott 
Lawrence,  John  Mills,  and  Charles  Allen. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxxvii 

While  we  name  with  honor  the  gentlemen  forming  the  com 
missions,  a  tribute  of  respect  is  also  due  to  the  patriotism  of  the 
States  immediately  concerned,  and  especially  of  Maine.  To 
devolve  on  any  individuals,  however  high  in  the  public  regard, 
a  power  of  transferring,  without  ratification  or' appeal,  a  portion 
of  the  territory  of  the  State,  for  such  consideration  as  those  in 
dividuals  might  judge  to  be  adequate,  was  a  measure  to  be 
expected  only  in  a  case  of  clear  necessity  and  high  confidence. 
Mr.  Webster  is  known  to  have  regarded  this  with  the  utmost 
concern  and  anxiety,  as  the  turning-point  of  the  whole  attempt. 
His  letter  to  Governor  Fail-field  states  the  case  with  equal 
strength  and  fairness,  and  puts  the  course  there  recommended 
in  striking  contrast  with  that  of  proceeding  to  agree  to  another 
arbitration,  as  had  been  offered  by  the  preceding  administra 
tion,  and  assented  to  by  England.  The  fate  of  the  negotiation 
might  be  considered  as  involved  in  the  success  of  this  appeal 
to  the  chief  magistrate  of  Maine,  and  through  him  to  his  con 
stituents.  It  is  said  that,  when  Mr.  Webster  heard  that  the 
legislature  of  Maine  had  adopted  the  resolutions  for  the  commis 
sion,  he  went  to  President  Tyler  and  said,  with  evident  satis 
faction  and  some  animation,  "  Tlie  crisis  is  past !  " 

A  considerable  portion,  though  not  the  whole,  of  the  official 
correspondence  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  other 
parties  to  the  negotiation  is  contained  in  the  sixth  volume  of 
this  collection.  The  documents  published  exhibit  fall  proof  of 
the  ability  with  which  the  argument  was  conducted.  They  prob 
ably  furnish  but  an  inadequate  specimen  of  the  judgment,  tact, 
and  moral  power  required  to  conduct  such  a  negotiation  to  a 
successful  result.  National,  State,  and  individual  susceptibili 
ties  were  to  be  respected  and  soothed ;  adverse  interests,  real  or 
imaginary,  to  be  consulted;  the  ordeal  of  the  Senate  to  be 
passed  through,  after  every  other  difficulty  had  been  overcome ; 
and  all  this  in  an  atmosphere  as  little  favorable  to  such  an  op 
eration  as  can  well  be  imagined.  What  neither  Mr.  Mon 
roe  in  the  "  era  of  good  feelings,"  nor  the  ability  and  experience 
of  Messrs.  Adams,  Clay,  and  Gallatin,  nor  General  Jackson's 
overwhelming  popularity,  had  been  able  to  bring  about,  was 
effected  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Tyler,  though  that 
administration  seemed  already  crumbling  for  want  of  harmony 
between  some  of  the  members  and  the  head,  and  between  that 


cxxviii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

head  and  the  party  which  had  brought  him  into  power.  No 
higher  tribute  can  be  paid  to  the  ability  and  temper  which  were 
brought  to  the  work. 

It  was,  however,  in  truth,  an  adjustment  equally  honorable 
and  advantageous  to  all  parties.  There  is  not  an  individual  of 
common  sense  or  common  conscience  in  Maine  or  Massachu 
setts,  in  the  United  States  or  Great  Britain,  who  would  now 
wish  it  disturbed.  It  took  from  Maine  a  tract  of  land  northwest 
of  the  St.  John,  which  the  people  of  Maine  believed  to  belong 
to  them  under  the  treaty  of  1783.  But  it  is  not  enough  that  we 
think  ourselves  right;  the  other  party  thinks  the  same;  and 
when  there  is  no  common  tribunal  which  both  acknowledge, 
there  must  be  compromise.  The  tract  of  lancj  in  question,  for 
any  purpose  of  cultivation  or  settlement,  was  without  value ; 
and  had  it  been  otherwise,  it  would  not  have  been  worth  the 
cost  of  a  naval  armament  or  one  military  expedition,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  abomination  of  shedding  blood  on  such  an  issue. 
But  the  disputed  title  to  the  worthless  tract  of  morass,  heath, 
and  rock,  covered  with  snow  or  fog  throughout  a  great  part  of 
the  year,  was  not  ceded  gratuitously.  We  obtained  the  naviga 
tion  of  the  St.  John,  the  natural  outlet  of  the  whole  country, 
without  which  the  territory  watered  by  it  would  have  been  of 
comparatively  little  value;  we  obtained  a  good  natural  boun 
dary  as  far  as  the  course  of  the  river  was  followed  ;  and  we  es 
tablished  the  line  which  we  claimed  at  the  head  of  the  Con 
necticut,  on  Lake  Champlain,  and  on  the  upper  lakes;  territorial 
objects  of  considerable  interest.  Great  Britain  had  equal  rea 
son  to  be  satisfied  with  the  result.  For  her  the  territory  north 
west  of  the  St.  John,  worthless  to  us,  had  a  geographical  and 
political  value ;  it  gave  her  a  convenient  connection  between 
her  provinces,  which  was  all  she  desired.  Both  sides  gained 
the  only  object  which  really  was  of  importance  to  either,  a 
settlement  by  creditable  means  of  a  wearisome  national  con 
troversy  ;  an  honorable  escape  from  the  scourge  and  curse  of 
war. 

Both  governments  appear  to  have  been  fortunate  in  the 
constitution  of  the  joint  commission  to  survey,  run,  and  mark 
the  long  line  of  boundary.  Mr.  Albert  Smith,  of  Maine, 
was  appointed  commissioner  on  the  part  of  the  United  States, 
with  Major  James  D.  Graham,  of  the  United  States  Topo- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.     Cxxix 

graphical  Engineers  as  head  of  a  scientific  corps,  and  Mr.  Ed 
ward  Webster*  as  his  secretary.  On  the  part  of  Great  Britain, 
Lieutenant- Colonel  J.  B.  B.  Estcourt,  of  her  Majesty's  service, 
was  appointed  commissioner,  with  Captain  W.  H.  Robinson, 
of  the  Royal  Engineers,  as  principal  astronomer,  and  J.  Scott, 
Esq.,  as  secretary.  Other  professional  gentlemen  were  also  em 
ployed  on  both  sides.  Great  harmony  characterized  all  the  pro 
ceedings  and  results  of  the  commission.  The  lines  were  accu 
rately  run,  and  that  part  of  them  not  designated  by  rivers  was 
marked  all  the  way  by  substantial  cast-iron  monuments,  with 
suitable  inscriptions,  at  every  mile,  and  at  most  of  the  prin 
cipal  angles ;  and  wherever  the  lines  extended  through  forests, 
the  trees  were  cut  down  and  cleared  to  the  width  of  thirty 
feet.  All  the  islands  in  the  St.  John  were  also  designated 
with  iron  monuments,  with  inscriptions  indicating  the  govern 
ment  to  which  they  belonged;  and  upon  that  and  all  other 
streams  forming  portions  of  the  boundary,  monuments  were 
erected  at  the  junction  of  every  branch  with  the  main  river. 

But  it  is  time  to  advert  to  the  other  great  and  difficult  que?  • 
tions  included  in  this  adjustment.  The  extradition  of  fugitives 
from  justice  is  regarded  by  Grotius  and  other  respectable  au 
thorities  as  the  duty  of  states,  by  the  law  of  nations.  Other 
authorities  reject  this  doctrine  ;  f  and  if  it  be  the  law  of  nations, 
it  requires  for  its  execution  so  much  administrative  machinery 
as  to  be  of  no  practical  value  without  treaty  stipulations.  The 
treaty  of  1794  with  Great  Britain  (Jay's  treaty)  made  provision 
for  a  mutual  extradition  of  fugitives,  in  cases  of  murder  and 
forgery ;  and  the  case  of  Jonathan  Robbins,  memorable  for  the 
argument  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  defence  of  his  surrender, 
gave  a  political  notoriety  to  that  feature  of  the  treaty  not  favora 
ble  to  its  renewal  in  subsequent  negotiations.  This  treaty  stip 
ulation  expired  by  its  own  limitation  in  1806. 

Besides  the  convenience  of  such  an  understanding  on  the 
part  of  the  two  great  commercial  countries,  from  which  lan 
guage,  personal  appearance,  and  manners  render  mutual  escape 
so  easy,  the  condition  of  the  frontier  of  the  United  States  and 

\ 

*  Younger  son  of  Mr.  Webster,  who  died  in?  Mexico,  in  1848,  being  a  ma 
jor  in  the  regiment  of  Massachusetts  Volunteers. 

f  The  authorities  are  given  in  Story's  Commentaries,  Vol.  III.  pp.  675,  676 ; 
Conflict  of  Laws,  pp.  520,  522  ;  and  in  Kent's  Commentaries,  Vol.  I.  pp.  36,  37. 


cxxx      BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Canada  was  such  as  to  make  this  provision  all  but  necessary 
for  the  preservation  of  the  peace  of  the  two  countries.  An  ex 
tensive  secret  organization  existed  in  the  border  States,  the  ob 
ject  of  which  was,  under  the  delusive  name  of  "  sympathy,"  to 
foment  and  aid  rebellion  in  the  British  Provinces.  Although  an 
agreement  for  mutual  extradition  of  necessity  left  untouched  a 
great  deal  of  political  agitation  unfriendly  to  border  peace,  mur 
der  and  arson  were,  of  course,  within  its  provisions.  It  appears 
from  the  testimony  of  the  parties  best  informed  on  the  subject, 
that  the  happiest  consequences  flowed  from  this  article  of  the 
treaty  of  Washington.  No  more  was  heard  of  border  forays, 
"  Hunters'  Lodges,"  "  Associations  for  the  Liberty  of  Canada," 
or  violences  offered  or  retaliated  across  the  line.  The  mild,  but 
certain  influence  of  law  imposed  a  restraint,  which  even  costly 
and  formidable  military  means  had  not  been  found  entirely  ade 
quate  to  produce. 

The  stipulations  for  extradition  in  the  treaty  of  Washington 
appear  to  have  served  as  a  model  for  those  since  entered  into 
between  the  most  considerable  European  powers.  A  conven 
tion  for  the  same  purpose  was  concluded  between  England  and 
France  on  the  13th  of  February,  1843,  and  other  similar  com 
pacts  have  still  more  recently  been  negotiated.  Between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  the  operation  of  this  part  of 
the  treaty  has,  in  all  ordinary  cases,  been  entirely  satisfactory. 
Persons  charged  with  the  crimes  to  which  its  provisions  extend 
have  been  mutually  surrendered ;  and  the  cause  of  public  jus 
tice,  and  in  many  cases  important  private  interests,  have  been 
materially  served  on  both  sides  of  the  water. 

Not  inferior  in  importance  and  delicacy  to  the  other  subjects 
provided  for  by  the  treaty  was  that  which  concerned  the  meas 
ures  for  the  suppression  of  "  the  slave-trade  "  on  the  coast  of 
Africa.  In  order  to  understand  the  difficulties  with  which  Mr. 
Webster  had  to  contend  on  this  subject,  a  brief  history  of  the 
question  must  be  given.  The  law  of  nations,  as  understood 
and  expounded  by  the  most  respectable  authorities  and  tribu 
nals,  European  and  American,  recognizes  the  right  of  search  of 
neutral  vessels  in  time  of  war,  by  the  public  ships  of  the  belli 
gerents.  It  recognizes  no  right  of  search  in  time  of  peace.  It 
makes  no  distinction  between  a  right  of  visitation  and  a  right 
of  search.  To  compel  a  trading-vessel,  against  the  will  of  her 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,      cxxxi 

commander,  to  come  to  and  be  boarded,  for  any  purpose  what 
soever,  is  an  exercise  of  the  right  of  search  which  the  law  of 
nations  concedes  to  belligerents  for  certain  purposes.  To  do 
this  in  time  of  peace,  under  whatever  name  it  may  be  excused 
or  justified,  is  to  perform  an  act  of  mere  power,  for  which  the 
law  of  nations  affords  no  warrant.  The  moral  quality  of  the 
action,  and  the  estimate  formed  of  it,  will  of  course  depend 
upon  circumstances,  motives,  and  manner.  If  an  armed  ship 
board  a  vessel  under  reasonable  suspicion  that  she  is  a  pirate, 
and  when  there  is  no  other  convenient  mode  of  ascertaining 
that  point,  there  would  be  no  cause  of  blame,  although  the  sus 
picion  turned  out  to  be  groundless. 

The  British  government,  for  the  praiseworthy  purpose  of 
putting  a  stop  to  the  traffic  in  slaves,  has  at  different  times  en 
tered  into  conventions  with  several  of  the  states  of  Europe  au 
thorizing  a  mutual  right  of  search  of  the  trading-vessels  of  each 
contracting  party  by  the  armed  cruisers  of  the  other  party. 
These  treaties  give  no  right  to  search  the  vessels  of  nations 
not  parties  to  them.  But  if  an  armed  ship  of  either  party 
should  search  a  vessel  of  a  third  power  under  a  reasonable  sus 
picion  that  she  belonged  to  the  other  contracting  party,  and 
was  pursuing  the  slave-trade  in  contravention  of  the  treaty, 
this  act  of  power,  performed  by  mistake,  and  with  requisite 
moderation  and  circumspection  in  the  manner,  would  not  be 
just  ground  of  offence.  It  would,  however,  authorize  a  reason 
able  expectation  of  indemnification  on  behalf  of  the  private  in 
dividuals  who  might  suffer  by  the  detention,  as  in  other  cases 
of  injury  inflicted  on  innocent  persons  by  public  functionaries 
acting  with  good  intentions,  but  at  their  peril. 

The  government  of  the  United  States,  both  in  its  executive 
and  legislative  branches,  has  at  almost  all  times  manifested  an 
extreme  repugnance  to  enter  into  conventions  for  a  mutual  right 
of  search.  It  has  not  yielded  to  any  other  power  in  its  aver 
sion  to  the  slave-trade,  which  it  was  the  first  government  to 
denounce  as  piracy.  The  reluctance  in  question  grew  princi 
pally  out  of  the  injuries  inflicted  upon  the  American  commerce, 
and  still  more  out  of  the  personal  outrages  in  the  impressment 
of  American  seamen,  which  took  place  during  the  wars  of 
Napoleon,  and  incidentally  to  the  belligerent  right  of  search 
and  the  enforcement  of  the  Orders  in  Council  and  the  Berlin 


cxxxii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

and  Milan  Decrees.  Besides  a  wholesale  confiscation  of 
American  property,  hundreds  of  American  seamen  were  im 
pressed  into  the  ships  of  war  of  Great  Britain.  So  deeply  had 
the  public  sensibility  been  wounded  on  both  points,  that  any 
extension  of  the  right  of  search  by  the  consent  of  the  United 
States  was  for  a  long  time  nearly  hopeless. 

But  this  feeling,  strong  and  general  as  it  was,  yielded  at  last 
to  the  detestation  of  the  slave-trade.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
second  administration  of  Mr.  Monroe  the  executive  had  been 
induced,  acting  under  the  sanction  of  resolutions  of  the  two 
houses  of  Congress,  to  agree  to  a  convention  with  Great 
Britain  for  a  mutual  right  of  search  of  vessels  suspected  of  be 
ing  engaged  in  the  traffic.  This  convention  was  negotiated  in 
London  by  Mr.  Rush  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  Mr. 
Canning  being  the  British  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Af 
fairs. 

In  defining  the  limits  within  which  this  right  should  be  exer 
cised,  the  coasts  of  America  were  included.  The  Senate  were 
of  opinion  that  such  a  provision  might  be  regarded  as  an  ad 
mission  that  the  slave-trade  was  carried  on  between  the  coasts 
of  Africa  and  the  United  States,  contrary  to  the  known  fact, 
and  to  the  reproach  either  of  the  will  or  power  of  the  United 
States  to  enforce  their  laws,  by  which  it  was  declared  to  be 
piracy.  It  also  placed  the  whole  coast  of  the  Union  under  the 
surveillance  of  the  cruisers  of  a  foreign  power.  The  Senate, 
accordingly,  ratified  the  treaty,  with  an  amendment  exempt 
ing  the  coasts  of  the  United  States  from  the  operation  of  the 
article.  They  also  introduced  other  amendments  of  less  im 
portance. 

On  the  return  of  the  treaty  to  London  thus  amended,  Mr. 
Canning  gave  way  to  a  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  at  the  course 
pursued  by  the  Senate,  not  so  much  on  account  of  any  decided 
objection  to  the  amendment  in  itself  considered,  as  to  the  claim 
of  the  Senate  to  introduce  any  change  into  a  treaty  negotiated 
according  to  instructions.  Under  the  influence  of  this  feeling, 
Mr.  Canning  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty  as  amended,  and  no 
further  attempt  was  at  that  time  made  to  renew  the  nego 
tiation. 

It  will  probably  be  admitted  on  all  hands,  at  the  present  day, 
that  Mr.  Canning's  scruple  was  without  foundation.  The 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxxxiii 

treaty  had  been  negotiated  by  this  accomplished  statesman, 
under  the  full  knowledge  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  reserves  this  power  to  the  Senate.  That  it  should  be 
exercised  was,  therefore,  no  more  matter  of  complaint,  than  that 
the  treaty  should  be  referred  at  all  to  the  ratification  of  the 
Senate.  The  course  pursued  by  Mr.  Canning  was  greatly  to 
be  regretted,  as  it  postponed  the  amicable  adjustment  of  this 
matter  for  eighteen  years,  not  without  risk  of  serious  misunder 
standing  in  the  interval. 

Attempts  were  made  on  the  part  of  England,  during  the 
ministry  of  Lord  Melbourne,  to  renew  the  negotiation  with  the 
United  States,  but  without  success.  Conventions  between 
France  and  England,  for  a  mutual  right  of  search  within  cer 
tain  limits,  were  concluded  in  1831  and  1833,  under  the  min 
istry  of  the  Due  de  Broglie,  without  awakening  the  public  sen 
sibility  in  the  former  country.  As  these  treaties  multiplied,  the 
activity  of  the  English  cruisers  increased.  After  the  treaty 
with  Portugal,  in  1838,  the  vessels  of  that  country,  which,  with 
those  of  Spain,  were  most  largely  engaged  in  the  traffic,  began 
to  assume  the  flag  of  the  United  States  as  a  protection  ;  and  in 
many  cases,  also,  although  the  property  of  vessels  and  cargo 
had,  by  collusive  transfers  on  the  African  coast,  become  Span 
ish  or  Portuguese,  the  vessels  had  been  built  and  fitted  out  in 
the  United  States,  and  too  often,  it  may  be  feared,  with  Amer 
ican  capital.  Vessels  of  this  description  were  provided  with 
two  sets  of  papers,  to  be  used  as  occasion  might  require. 

Had  nothing  further  been  done  by  British  cruisers  than  to 
board  and  search  these  vessels,  whether  before  or  after  a  trans 
fer  of  this  kind,  no  complaint  would  probably  have  been  made 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States.  But,  as  many  Amer 
ican  vessels  were  engaged  in  lawful  commerce  on  the  coast  of 
Africa,  it  frequently  happened  that  they  were  boarded  by  Brit 
ish  cruisers,  not  always  under  the  command  of  discreet  officers. 
Some  voyages  were  broken  up,  officers  and  men  occasionally 
ill-treated,  and  vessels  sent  to  the  United  States  or  Sierra  Leone 
for  adjudication. 

In  1840  an  agreement  was  made  between  the  officers  in  com 
mand  of  the  British  and  American  squadrons  respectively,  sanc 
tioning  a  reciprocal  right  of  search  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  It 
will  be  found  among  the  papers  pertaining  to  this  subject,  in  the 

VOL.  i.  / 


cxxxiv     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

sixth  volume  of  this  collection.  It  was  a  well-meant,  but  un 
authorized  step,  and  was  promptly  disavowed  by  the  adminis 
tration  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Its  operation,  while  it  lasted,  was 
but  to  increase  the  existing  difficulty.  Reports  of  the  interrup 
tions  experienced  by  our  commerce  in  the  African  waters  began 
greatly  to  multiply ;  and  there  was  a  strong  interest  on  the  part 
of  those  surreptitiously  engaged  in  the  traffic  to  give  them  cur 
rency.  A  deep  feeling  began  to  be  manifested  in  the  country ; 
and  the  correspondence  between  the  American  Minister  in  Lon 
don  and  Lord  Palmerston,  in  the  last  days  of  the  Melbourne 
ministry,  was  such  as  to  show  that  the  controversy  had  reached 
a  critical  point.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  question  when  Mr. 
Webster  entered  the  Department  of  State. 

The  controversy  was  transmitted,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the 
new  administrations  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  but  soon  as 
sumed  a  somewhat  modified  character.  The  quintuple  treaty, 
as  it  was  called,  was  concluded  at  London,  on  the  20th  of  De 
cember,  1841,  by  England,  France,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Rus 
sia  ;  and  information  of  that  fact,  as  we  have  seen  above,  was 
given  by  Lord  Aberdeen  to  Mr.  Everett  the  same  day.  A 
strong  desire  was  intimated  that  the  United  States  would  join 
this  association  of  the  great  powers,  but  no  formal  invitation 
for  that  purpose  was  addressed  to  them.  But  the  recent  occur 
rences  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  tone  of  the  correspond 
ence  above  alluded  to,  had  increased  the  standing  repugnance 
of  the  United  States  to  the  recognition  of  a  right  of  search  in 
time  of  peace. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  same  complaints,  sometimes  just, 
sometimes  exaggerated,  sometimes  groundless,  had  reached 
France  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  a  strong  feeling  against 
the  right  of  search  was  produced  in  that  country.  The  inci 
dents  connected  with  the  adjustment  of  the  Syrian  question,  in 
1840,  had  greatly  irritated  the  French  ministry  and  people,  and 
the  present  was  deemed  a  favorable  moment  for  retaliation.  On 
the  assembling  of  the  Chambers,  an  amendment  was  moved  by 
M.  Lefebvre  to  the  address  in  reply  to  the  king's  speech  in  the 
following  terms :  "  We  have  also  the  confidence,  that,  in  grant 
ing  its  concurrence  to  the  suppression  of  a  criminal  traffic, 
your  government  will  know  how  to  preserve  from  every  attack 
the  interest  of  our  commerce  and  the  independence  of  our  flag." 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      CXXxv 

This  amendment  was  adopted  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
Chambers. 

This  was  well  understood  to  be  a  blow  aimed  at  the  quintuple 
treaty.  It  was  the  most  formidable  parliamentary  check  ever 
encountered  by  M.  Guizot's  administration.  It  excited  profound 
sensation  throughout  Europe.  It  compelled  the  French  min 
istry  to  make  the  painful  sacrifice  of  a  convention  negotiated 
agreeably  to  instructions,  and  not  differing  in  principle  from 
those  of  1831  and  1833,  which  were  consequently  liable  to  be 
involved  in  its  fate.  The  ratification  of  the  quintuple  treaty 
was  felt  to  be  out  of  the  question.  Although  it  soon  appeared 
that  the  king  was  determined  to  sustain  M.  Guizot,  it  was  by 
no  means  apparent  in  what  manner  his  administration  was  to 
be  rescued  from  the  present  embarrassment. 

The  public  feeling  in  France  was  considerably  heightened  by 
various  documents  which  appeared  at  this  juncture,  in  connec 
tion  with  the  controversy  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain.  The  President's  message  and  its  accompanying  papers 
reached  Europe  about  the  period  of  the  opening  of  the  session. 
A  very  few  days  after  the  adoption  of  M.  Lefebvre's  amend 
ment,  a  pamphlet,  written  by  General  Cass,  was  published  in 
Paris,  and,  being  soon  after  translated  into  French  and  widely 
circulated,  contributed  to  strengthen  the  current  of  public  feel 
ing.  A  more  elaborate  essay  was,  in  the  course  of  the  season, 
published  by  Mr.  Wheaton,  the  Minister  of  the  United  States 
at  Berlin,  in  which  the  theory  of  a  right  of  search  in  time  of 
peace  was  vigorously  assailed. 

The  preceding  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  question  will  show 
the  difficulty  of  the  position  in  reference  to  this  most  important 
interest,  at  the  time  Lord  Ashburton's  mission  was  instituted. 
With  what  practical  good  sense  and  high  statesmanship  the 
controversy  was  terminated  is  well  known  to  the  country.  It  is 
unnecessary  here  to  retrace  the  steps  of  the  correspondence,  to 
comment  on  the  eighth  article  of  the  treaty  of  Washington,  or 
to  analyze  the  parliamentary  and  diplomatic  discussions  to 
which  in  the  following  year  it  gave  rise.  It  is  enough  to  say, 
that,  under  circumstances  of  some  embarrassment  to  the  Depart 
ment  of  State,  a  course  of  procedure  was  happily  devised  by 
Mr.  Webster,  and  incorporated  into  the  treaty,  which,  leaving 
untouched  the  metaphysics  of  the  question,  furnished  a  satis* 


cxxxvi     BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

factory  practical  solution  of  the  difficulty.  Circumstances  hav 
ing  made  a  restatement  expedient  of  the  principles  maintained 
by  the  United  States  on  this  most  important  subject,  a  letter 
was  addressed  by  Mr.  Webster  to  Mr.  Everett,  on.  the  28th  of 
March,  1843,  to  be  read  to  the  British  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  in  which  the  law  of  nations  applicable  to  the 
subject  was  expounded  by  the  American  Secretary  with  a  clear 
ness  and  power  which  will  render  any  further  discussion  of  the 
subject,  under  its  present  aspects,  entirely  superfluous.  Nor 
will  it  be  thought  out  of  place  to  acknowledge  the  fairness, 
good  temper,  and  ability  with  which  the  doctrine  and  practice 
of  the  English  government  were  sustained  by  the  Earl  of  Aber 
deen. 

The  wisdom  with  which  the  eighth  article  of  the  treaty  was 
drawn  up  was  soon  seen  in  its  consequences.  Its  effect  was 
decisive.  It  put  a  stop  to  all  discontent  at  home  in  reference  to 
the  interruption  of  our  lawful  commerce  on  the  coast  of  Africa. 
Abroad,  it  raised  the  jealousy  already  existing  in  France  on  this 
subject  to  the  point  of  uncontrollable  repugnance.  The  ratifi 
cation  of  the  quintuple  treaty  had  long  been  abandoned.  It 
was  soon  evident  that  the  conventions  of  1831  and  1833  must 
be  given  up.  In  the  course  of  the  year  1844,  the  Due  de  Broglie, 
the  honorable  and  accomplished  minister  by  whom  they  had 
been  negotiated,  accepted  a  special  mission  to  London,  for  the 
purpose  of  coming  to  some  satisfactory  arrangement  by  way  of 
substitute,  and  a  convention  was  soon  concluded  with  the  Brit 
ish  government  on  precisely  the  same  principles  with  those  of 
the  treaty  of  Washington. 

It  may  be  hoped  that  the  important  suggestion  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  will  be  borne  in  mind,  in  any  future  discussions  of  this  and 
other  maritime  questions,  that  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
is  not  that  of  a  feeble  naval  power  interested  in  exaggerating 
the  doctrine  of  neutral  inviolability.  A  respect  for  every  inde 
pendent  flag  is  a  common  interest  of  all  civilized  states,  power 
ful  or  weak;  but  the  rank  of  the  United  States  among  naval 
powers,  and  their  position  as  the  great  maritime  power  on  the 
western  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  eastern  coasts  of  the 
Pacific,  may  lead  them  to  doubt  the  expediency  of  pressing  too 
far  the  views  they  have  hitherto  held,  and  moderate  their  anx 
iety  to  construe  with  extreme  strictness  the  rights  which  the 
law  of  nations  concedes  to  public  vessels. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxxxvii 

The  three  subjects  on  which  we  have  dwelt,  namely,  the 
northeastern  boundary,  the  extradition  of  fugitives,  and  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  were  the  only  ones  which  re 
quired  to  be  provided  for  by  treaty  stipulation.  Other  subjects, 
scarcely  less  important  and  fully  as  difficult  were  happily  dis 
posed  of  in  the  correspondence  of  the  plenipotentiaries.  These 
were  the  affair  of  the  "  Caroline,"  that  of  the  "  Creole,"  and 
the  question  of  impressment.  Our  limits  do  not  permit  us  to 
dwell  at  length  on  these  topics ;  but  we  shall  be  pardoned  for 
one  or  two  reflections. 

So  urgent  is  the  pressure  on  the  public  mind  of  the  succes 
sive  events  which  demand  attention  each  as  it  presents  itself, 
that  the  formidable  difficulties  growing  out  of  the  destruction 
of  the  "  Caroline  "  and  the  arrest  of  McLeod  are  already  fad 
ing  from  recollection.  They  formed,  in  reality,  a  crisis  of  a 
most  serious  and  delicate  character.  A  glance  at  the  corre 
spondence  of  the  two  governments  at  Washington  and  London 
sufficiently  shows  this  to  be  the  case.  The  violation  of  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  in  the  destruction  of  the  "  Caro 
line,"  however  unwarrantable  the  conduct  of  the  "  sympathiz 
ers  "  which  provoked  it,  became,  from  the  moment  the  British 
government  assumed  the  responsibility  of  the  act,  an  incident 
of  the  gravest  character.  On  the  other  hand,  the  inability  of 
the  government  of  the  United  States  to  extricate  McLeod  from 
the  risks  of  a  capital  trial  in  a  State  court,  although  the  gov 
ernment  of  England  demanded  his  liberation  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  acting  under  the  legal  orders  of  his  superior,  pre 
sented  a  difficulty  in  the  working  of  our  system  equally  novel 
and  important.  Other  cases  had  arisen  in  which  important 
constitutional  principles  had  failed  to  take  effect,  for  want  of  the 
requisite  legislative  provisions.  It  is  believed  that  this  was  the 
first  time  in  which  a  difficulty  of  this  kind  had  presented  itself 
in  our  foreign  relations.  A  more  threatening  one  can  scarcely 
be  imagined.  In  addition  to  the  embarrassment  occasioned  by 
the  refusal  of  the  executive  and  judiciary  of  New  York  to  yield 
to  the  representations  of  the  general  government,  the  violent 
interference  of  the  mob  presented  new  difficulties  of  the  most 
deplorable  character.  If  McLeod  had  been  executed,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say,  that  war  would  at  once  have  ensued. 
His  acquittal  averted  this  impending  danger.  The  conciliatory 
/* 


cxxxviii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

spirit  cannot  be  too  warmly  commended  with  which,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  proper  reparation  was  made  by  Lord  Ashburton 
for  the  violation  of  the  American  territory,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  Congress,  by  the  passage  of  an  appropriate  law,  pro 
vided  an  effectual  legislative  remedy  for  any  future  similar 
case.  They  show  with  what  simplicity  and  ease  the  greatest 
evils  may  be  averted,  and  the  most  desirable  ends  achieved,  by 
statesmen  and  governments  animated  by  a  sincere  desire  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  those  who  have  placed  power  i-n  their 
hands,  not  for  selfish,  party  purposes,  but  for  the  public  good. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  of  the  papers  written  by  Mr.  Web 
ster  as  Secretary  of  State,  in  which  so  much  force  of  state 
ment  and  power  of  argument  are  displayed  as  in  the  letter  on 
"  impressment."  To  incorporate  a  stipulation  on  this  subject 
into  a  treaty  was,  regarding  the  antecedents  of  the  question, 
impracticable.  But  the  reply  of  Lord  Ashburton  to  Mr.  Web 
ster's  announcement  of  the  American  principle  must  be  consid 
ered  as  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  his  government.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether  this  odious  and  essentially  illegal  practice 
will  ever  again  be  systematically  resorted  to,  even  in  England.* 
Considering  the  advance  made  by  public  sentiment  an  all  ques 
tions  connected  with  personal  liberty,  "  a  hot-press  on  the 
Thames  "  would  hardly  stand  the  ordeal  of  an  investigation  in 
Parliament  at  the  present  day.  It  is  certain  that  the  right  of 
impressing  seamen  from  American  vessels  could  never  be  prac 
tically  asserted  in  a  future  war  with  any  other  effect  than  that 
of  adding  the  United  States  to  the  parties  in  the  contest.  No 
refinements  in  the  doctrine  of  natural  allegiance,  although 

*  The  following  passage  from  a  letter  of  Robert  Walsh,  Esq.,  to  the  editors 
of  the  National  Intelligencer,  dated  Paris,  28th  October,  1842,  furnishes  confir 
mation  of  the  remark  in  the  text :  — 

"  The  former  journal  [The  Times],  of  the  18th  instant,  acknowledges  that 
Mr.  Webster  '  has  not  exaggerated  the  hardships  and  evils  which  the  practice  of 
impressment  occasioned  in  the  last  war.'  It  ratifies  his  ideas  of  the  probable 
aggravation  of  them,  if  the  practice  should  be  ever  renewed  ;  it  would  even  dis 
pense  with  press-warrants  at  home,  as  adverse  to  the  general  principles  of  Brit 
ish  liberty  and  law  ;  it  advises  some  general  measure  for  the  entire  abolition  of 
arbitrary  impressment  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  it  expresses  its  belief  of  a 
very  strong  probability,  that,  in  the  event  of  a  war,  no  instructions  for  the  im- 
pressment°of  British  seamen  found  in  American  merchant-vessels  will  be  issued 
to  her  Majesty's  cruisers.  The  Standard  chimes  with  the  great  oracle,  and 
concludes  in  this  strain  :  *  We  may  infer  that,  whatever  may  be  the  plan  here 
after  for  managing  our  navy,  impressment  will  never  again  be  resorted  to  ;  this 
is  beyond  a  doubt ;  the  practice  complained  of  by  Mr.  Webster  will  be  aban 
doned.'  " 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxxxix 

their  theoretical  soundness  might  equal  their  subtilty,  would 
be  of  the  least  avail  here.  To  force  seamen  from  the  deck  of  a 
peaceful  neutral  vessel,  pursuing  a  lawful  commerce,  and  com 
pel  them  to  serve  for  an  indefinite  and  hopeless  period  on  board 
a  foreign  man-of-war,  is  an  act  of  power  and  violence  to  which 
no  nation  will  submit  that  is  able  to  resist  it.  In  the  case  of 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  that  community  of  lan 
guage  and  resemblance  in  general  appearance  which  may  have 
been  considered  as  palliating  the  most  deplorable  results  of  the 
exercise  of  this  power,  in  reality  constitute  the  strongest  reason 
for  its  abandonment.  The  unquestionable  danger  that,  with 
the  best  intentions,  the  boarding  officer  may  mistake  an  Ameri 
can  for  an  Englishman ;  the  certainty  that  a  reckless  lieuten 
ant,  unmindful  of  consequences,  but  bent  upon  recruiting  his 
ship  on  a  remote  foreign  station,  will  pretend  to  believe  that 
he  is  seizing  the  subjects  of  his  own  government,  whatever  may 
be  the  evidence  to  the  contrary,  are  reasons  of  themselves  for 
denying  on  the  threshold  the  existence  of  a  right  exposed  to 
such  inevitable  and  intolerable  abuse. 

These  and  other  views  of  the  subject  are  presented  in  Mr. 
Webster's  letter  to  Lord  Ashburton  of  the  8th  of  August,  1842, 
with  a  strength  of  reasoning  and  force  of  illustration  not  often 
equalled  in  a  state  paper.  That  letter  was  spoken  of,  in  the 
hearing  of  the  writer  of  this  memoir,  by  one  whose  name,  if  it 
could  be  mentioned  with  propriety,  would  give  the  highest  au 
thority  to  the  remark,  as  a  composition  not  surpassed  by  any 
thing  in  the  language.  The  principles  laid  doVn  ^11  it  may  be 
considered  as  incorporated  into  the  public  law  of  the  United 
States,  and  will  have  their  influence  beyond  our  own  territorial 
limits  and  beyond  our  own  time. 

Some  disappointment  was  probably  felt,  when  the  treaty  of 
"Washington  was  published,  that  a  settlement  of  the  Oregon 
question  was  not  included  among  its  provisions.  It  need  not 
be  said  that  a  subject  of  such  magnitude  did  not  escape  the 
attention  of  the  negotiators.  It  was,  however,  speedily  infer 
red  by  Mr.  Webster,  from  the  purport  of  his  informal  confer 
ences  with  Lord  Ashburton  on  this  point,  that  an  arrangement 
of  this  question  was  not  then  practicable,  and  that  to  attempt  it 
would  be  to  put  the  entire  negotiation  to  great  risk  of  failure. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  less  certain  that,  by  closing  up 


cxl          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

the  other  matters  in  controversy,  the  best  preparation  was 
made  for  bringing  the  Oregon  dispute  to  an  amicable  issue, 
whenever  circumstances  should  favor  that  undertaking.  Con 
siderable  firmness  was  no  doubt  required  to  act  upon  this 
policy,  and  to  forego  the  attempt,  at  least,  to  settle  a  question 
rapidly  growing  into  the  most  formidable  magnitude.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  say  how  completely  the  course  adopted  has 
been  justified  by  the  event. 

We  have  in  the  preceding  remarks  confined  ourselves  to  the 
topics  connected  with  the  treaty  of  Washington.  But  other 
subjects  of  great  importance  connected  with  the  foreign  affairs 
of  the  country  engaged  the  attention  of  Mr.  Webster  as  Sec 
retary  of  State. 

The  first  of  these  pertained  to  our  controversies  with  Mexico, 
and  was  treated  in  a  letter  to  M.  de  Bocanegra,  the  Mexican  Sec 
retary  of  State  and  Foreign  Relations.  The  great  and  unex 
pected  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  that  quarter  since 
the  date  of  this  correspondence  will  not  impair  the  interest  with 
which  it  will  be  read.  It  throws  important  light  on  the  earlier 
stages  of  our  controversy  with  that  ill-advised  and  infatuated 
government.  Among  the  papers  in  this  part  of  the  volume  are 
those  which  relate  to  the  Santa  Fe  prisoners  and  Captain  Jones's 
attack  on  Monterey. 

Under  the  head  of  "  Relations  with  Spain  "  will  be  found  a 
correspondence  of  great  interest  between  the  Chevalier  d'Argaiz, 
the  representative  of  that  government,  and  Mr.  Webster,  on  the 
subject  of  the  "  Amistad."  The  pertinacity  with  which  this 
matter  was  pursued  by  Spain,  after  its  adjudication  by  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  furnishes  an  instructive 
commentary  upon  the  sincerity  of  that  government  in  its  meas 
ures  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade.  The  entire  merits  of 
this  important  and  extraordinary  case  are  condensed  in  Mr. 
Webster's  letters  of  the  1st  of  September,  1841,  and  21st  of 
June,  1842. 

Of  still  greater  interest  are  the  institution  of  the  mission  to 
China,  and  the  steps  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  The  sixth  volume  of  this 
collection  contains  the  instructions  given  to  Mr.  Cushing  as 
commissioner  to  China,  and  the  correspondence  between  Mr. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         Cxli 

Webster  and  Messrs.  Richards  and  Haalilio  on  behalf  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands.  At  any  period  less  crowded  with  important 
events  the  opening  of  diplomatic  relations  with  China,  and  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  that  power,  would  have 
been  deemed  occurrences  of  unusual  importance.  It  certainly 
reflects  great  credit  on  the  administration,  that  it  acted  with 
such  promptitude  and  efficiency  in  seizing  this  opportunity  of 
multiplying  avenues  of  commercial  intercourse.  Nor  is  less 
praise  due  to  the  energy  and  skill  of  the  negotiator,*  to  whom 
this  novel  and  important  undertaking  was  confided,  and  who 
was  able  to  embark  from  China,  on  his  return  homeward,  in  six 
months  after  his  arrival,  having  in  the  mean  time  satisfactorily 
concluded  the  treaty. 

The  application  of  the  representatives  of  the  Sandwich  Isl 
ands  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  the  counte 
nance  extended  to  them  at  Washington,  exercised  a  most  salu 
tary  and  seasonable  influence  over  the  destiny  of  those  islands. 
The  British  government  was  promptly  made  aware  of  the  course 
pursued  by  the  United  States,  and  was  no  doubt  led,  in  a  consid 
erable  degree,  by  this  circumstance,  to  promise  the  Hawaiian  del 
egates,  on  the  part  of  England,  to  respect  the  independent  neu 
trality  of  their  government.  In  the  mean  time,  the  British  admi 
ral  on  that  station  had  taken  provisional  possession  of  them  on 
behalf  of  his  government,  in  anticipation  of  a  similar  movement 
which  was  expected  on  the  part  of  France.  If  intelligence  of 
this  occurrence  had  been  received  in  London  before  the  promise 
above  alluded  to  was  given  by  Lord  Aberdeen  to  Messrs.  Rich 
ards  and  Haalilio,  it  is  not  impossible  that  Great  Britain  might 
have  felt  herself  warranted  in  retaining  the  protectorate  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  as  an  offset  for  the  occupation  of  Tahiti  by  the 
French.  As  it  was,  the  temporary  arrangement  of  the  British 
admiral  was  disavowed,  and  the  government  restored  to  the 
native  chief. 

Among  the  papers  contained  in  the  sixth  volume  will  be  found 
a  correspondence  between  Mr.  Webster  and  the  Portuguese  Min 
ister,  on  the  subject  of  duties  on  Portuguese  wines,  and  a  report 
of  great  importance  on  the  Sound  duties  and  the  Zoll-Verein, 
topics  to  which  the  recent  changes  in  the  Germanic  system  will 
henceforward  impart  a  greatly  increased  importance. 

*  Mr.  Gushing. 


cxlii        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

This  brief  enumeration  will  of  itself  sufficiently  show  the  ex 
tensive  range  of  the  subjects  to  which  the  attention  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  was  called,  during  the  two  years  for  which  he  filled  the 
Department  of  State. 

The  published  correspondence  probably  forms  but  a  small  por 
tion  of  the  official  labors  of  the  Department  of  State  for  the  pe 
riod  during  which  it  was  filled  by  Mr.  Webster.  They  consti 
tute,  nevertheless,  the  most  important  part  of  the  documentary 
record  of  a  period  of  official  service,  brief,  indeed,  but  as  beneficial 
to  the  country  as  any  of  which  the  memory  is  preserved  in  her  an 
nals.  The  administration  of  General  Harrison  found  the  United 
States,  in  the  spring  of  1841,  on  the  verge  of  a  war,  not  with 
a  feeble  Spanish  province,  scarcely  capable  of  a  respectable 
resistance,  but  with  the  most  powerful  government  on  earth. 
The  conduct  of  our  foreign  relations  was  intrusted  to  Mr.  Web 
ster,  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  in  the  two  years  during  which  he 
filled  that  office  controversies  of  fifty  years'  standing  were  termi 
nated,  new  causes  of  quarrel  that  s.prung  up  like  hydra's  heads 
were  settled,  and  peace  was  preserved  upon  honorable  terms. 
The  British  government,  fresh  from  the  conquest  of  China,  per 
haps  never  felt  itself  stronger  than  in  the  year  1842,  and  a  full 
share  of  credit  is  due  to  the  spirit  of  conciliation  which  swayed 
its  counsels.  Much  is  due  to  the  wise  and  amiable  minister 
who  was  despatched  from  England  on  the  holy  errand  of  peace ; 
much  to  the  patriotism  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  who 
confirmed  the  treaty  of  Washington  by  a  larger  majority  than 
ever  before  sustained  a  measure  of  this  kind  which  divided 
public  opinion ;  but  the  -first  meed  of  praise  is  unquestionably 
due  to  the  American  negotiator.  Let  the  just  measure  of  that 
praise  be  estimated,  by  reflecting  what  would  have  been  our 
condition  during  the  last  few  years,  if,  instead  of,  or  in  addition 
to,  the  war  with  Mexico,  we  had  been  involved  in  a  war  with 
Great  Britain. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER,     cxliis 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Mr.  Webster  resigns  his  Place  in  Mr.  Tyler's  Cabinet.  —  Attempts  to  draw  public 
Attention  to  the  projected  Annexation  of  Texas.  —  Supports  Mr.  Clay's  Nomina 
tion  for  the  Presidency.  —  Causes  of  the  Failure  of  that  Nomination.  —  Mr.  Web 
ster  returns  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  —  Admission  of  Texas  to  the 
Union.  —  The  War  with  Mexico.  —  Mr.  Webster's  Course  in  Reference  to  the  War. 
—  Death  of  Major  Webster  in  Mexico. —  Mr.  Webster's  unfavorable  Opinion  of  the 
IVfexican  Government.  —  Settlement  of  the  Oregon  Controversy.  —  Mr.  Webster's 
Agency  in  effecting  the  Adjustment.  —  Revival  of  the  Sub-Treasury  System  and 
Repeal  of  the  Tariff  Law  of  1842.  —  Southern  Tour.  —  Success  of  the  Mexican 
War  and  Acquisition  of  the  Mexican  Provinces. —  Efforts  in  Congress  to  organ 
ize  a  Territorial  Government  for  these  Provinces.  —  Great  Exertions  of  Mr.  Web 
ster  on  the  last  Night  of  the  Session.  —  Nomination  of  General  Taylor,  and  Course 
of  Mr.  Webster  in  Reference  to  it.  —  A  Constitution  of  State  Government  adopted 
by  California  prohibiting  Slavery.  —  Increase  of  Antislavery  Agitation.  —  Alarm 
ing  State  of  Affairs.  — Mr.  Webster's  Speech  for  the  Union.  —  Circumstances  under 
which  it  was  made,  and  Motives  by  which  he  was  influenced.  —  General  Taylor's 
Death,  and  the  Accession  of  Mr.  Fillmore  to  the  Presidency. —  Mr.  Webster  called 
to  the  Department  of  State. 

Mr.  WEBSTER  remained  in  the  Department  of  State  but  a 
little  over  two  years.  His  last  act  was  the  preparation  of  the 
instructions  of  Mr.  Gushing,  who  had  been  appointed  Commis 
sioner  to  China.  Difficulties  had  occurred  the  summer  before, 
between  President  Tyler  and  some  of  the  members  of  his  Cabi 
net,  and  all  of  those  gentlemen,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Web 
ster,  tendered  their  resignations,  which  were  accepted.  Hard 
thoughts  were  entertained  of  Mr.  Webster  in  some  quarters 
for  continuing  to  hold  his  seat  after  the  resignation  of  his  col 
leagues.  President  Tyler,  however,  had  in  no  degree  with 
drawn  his  confidence  from  Mr.  Webster  in  reference  to  the  for 
eign  affairs  of  the  country,  nor  interfered  with  the  administra 
tion  of  his  department,  and  Mr.  Webster  conceived  that  the 
interests  involved  in  his  remaining  at  his  post  were  far  too  im 
portant  to  be  sacrificed  to  punctilio.  His  own  sense  of  duty  in 
this  respect  was  confirmed  by  the  unanimous  counsel  of  the 
Massachusetts  delegation  in  Congress,  and  by  judicious  friends 
in  all  parts  of -the  country.  In  fact,  it  will  be  remembered 
that  when  difficulties  sprung  up  between  Mr.  Tyler  and  the 
Whig  party  in  Congress,  in  1842,  the  Whig  press  generally 
throughout  the  country  called  upon  the  members  of  the  Cabi- 


cxliv       BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

net  appointed  by  General  Harrison  to  retain  their  places  till 
they  should  be  removed  by  Mr.  Tyler. 

Mr.  Webster  remained  in  private  life  during  the  residue  of 
President  Tyler's  administration,  occupied  as  usual  with  pro 
fessional  pursuits,  and  enjoying  in  the  appropriate  seasons  the 
retirement  of  his  farm.  He  endeavored  by  private  communi 
cations  to  arouse  the  feeling  of  the  North  to  the  projects  which 
he  perceived  to  be  in  agitation  for  the  annexation  of  Texas 
but  the  danger  was  regarded  at  that  time  as  too  remote  to  be 
contended  against.  A  short  time  only  elapsed  before  the  fulfil 
ment  of  his  anticipations  was  forced  upon  the  country,  with 
fearful  urgency,  and  a  train  of  consequences  of  which  it  will  be 
left  to  a  late  posterity  to  witness  the  full  development.  Between 
the  years  1843  and  1845  the  fortunes  of  the  United  States  were 
subjected  to  an  influence,  for  good  or  for  evil,  not  to  be  exhaust 
ed  for  centuries. 

The  nomination  of  Mr.  Clay  to  the  Presidency  in  1844  was 
cordially  supported  by  Mr.  Webster.  He  took  the  field,  as  in 
the  summer  of  1840  in  favor  of  General  Harrison.  The  proofs 
of  the  untiring  zeal  with  which  he  entered  into  the  canvass, 
and  of  the  great  power  and  fertility  with  which  he  discussed 
the  various  topics  of  the  day,  will  be  seen  in  the  second  vol 
ume  of  the  present  collection.  It  has,  however,  been  found  im 
possible  to  insert  more  than  a  selection  of  the  speeches  made 
by  him  during  the  campaign.  Others  not  inferior  in  merit  and 
interest  were  made  by  him  in  the  course  of  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1844. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  result  of  this  election  was  decisive 
of  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  opinions  ex 
pressed  by  Mr.  Van  Buren  against  the  immediate  consumma 
tion  of  that  project  had  prevented  his  receiving  the  nomination 
of  the  Baltimore  Convention.  Mr.  Clay  was  pledged  against 
the  measure,  and  Mr.  Polk  was  selected  as  its  sure  friend.  If 
in  1844  the  friends  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  instead  of  giving  in  their 
adhesion  to  the  Baltimore  nomination  (which  was  in  fact  turn 
ing  the  scale  in  favor  of  Texas),  had  been  prepared,  as  in  1848, 
to  support  a  separate  nomination,  or  even  if  the  few  thousand 
votes  cast  by  the  "  Liberty  party  "  against  Mr.  Clay  had  been 
given  in  his  favor,  he  would  have  been  chosen  President  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  indefinite  postponement  of  the  annex- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        cxlv 

ation  of  Texas  and  the  Mexican  war,  with  all  their  conse 
quences.  But  in  great  things  as  in  small,  men  throw  away 
the  substance  while  they  grasp  at  the  shadow. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress  (1845-46), 
Mr.  Webster  took  his  seat  as  the  successor  of  Mr.  Choate  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  question  of  the  admis 
sion  of  Texas  was  decided  at  the  very  commencement  of  the 
session.  It  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Webster.  To  all  the  other 
objections  to  the  measure  in  his  mind  was  added  that  of  uncon 
stitutional!  ty.  The  annexation  was  now  brought  about  simply 
by  a  joint  resolution  of  the  two  houses,  after  it  had  been  found 
impossible  to  effect  it  by  treaty,  the  only  form  known  to  the  Con 
stitution  by  which  a  compact  can  be  entered  into  with  a  foreign 
power.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  of  opinion  in  1803,  that  even  a  treaty 
with  France  was  not  sufficient  for  the  annexation  of  Louisiana, 
but  that  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  was  necessary  for 
that  purpose.  In  1845  the  executive  and  a  majority  of  Con 
gress,  having  failed  to  carry  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  of  an 
nexation  by  the  constitutional  majority,  scrupled  not  to  accom 
plish  their  purpose  by  a  joint  resolution  of  the  two  houses;  and 
this  measure  was  effected  under  the  lead  of  statesmen  who 
claim  to  construe  the  Constitution  with  literal  strictness.  Events 
like  these  furnish  a  painful  illustration  of  the  frailty  of  consti 
tutional  restraints  as  a  barrier  against  the  consummation  of  the 
favorite  measures  of  a  dominant  party. 

The  great  event  of  the  administration  of  President  Polk  was 
the  war  with  Mexico.  The  time  has  not  yet  arrived  when  the 
counsels  under  which  this  war  was  brought  about  can  be  fully 
unfolded.  On  the  2d  of  December,  1845,  in  his  first  annual 
message,  having  communicated  to  Congress  the  acceptance  by 
Texas  of  the  terms  of  annexation  offered  by  the  joint  resolu 
tion,  President  Polk  thus  expressed  himself:  — 

"  This  accession  to  our  territory  has  been  a  bloodless  achievement. 
No  arm  of  force  has  been  raised  to  produce  the  result.  The  sword  has 
had  no  part  in  the  victory.  We  have  not  sought  to  extend  our  territorial 
possessions  by  conquest,  or  our  republican  institutions  over  a  reluctant 
people.  It  was  the  deliberate  homage  of  each  people  to  the  great  prin 
ciple  of  our  federative  Union." 

The  proffered  annexation  of  Texas  had  been  declined  both 
VOL.  i.  m 


cxlvi        BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

by  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  on  the  ground  that, 
unless  made  with  the  consent  of  Mexico,  it  would  involve  a 
war  with  that  power.  That  this  would  be  the  effect  was  not 
less  certain  on  the  2d  of  December,  1845,  when  Congress  were 
congratulated  on  the  "  bloodless  "  acquisition,  than  it  was  when, 
on  the  13th  of  January  following,  General  Taylor  was  instructed 
to  occupy  the  left  bank  of  the  Rio  del  Norte.  In  fact,  in  the 
very  message  in  which  President  Polk  remarks  to  Congress 
"  that  the  sword  had  had  no  part  in  the  victory,"  he  gives  them 
also~the  significant  information,  that,  upon  the  earnest  appeal 
both  of  the  Congress  and  convention  of  Texas,  he  had  ordered 
"  an  efficient  military  force  to  take  a  position  between  the 
Nueces  and  the  Del  Norte." 

This  force,  however  efficient  in  proportion  to  its  numbers 
and  in  virtue  of  the  gallantry  and  skill  of  its  commander,  was 
found  to  be  inadequate  to  sustain  the  brunt  of  the  Mexican 
arms.  Rapid  movements  on  the  part  of  Generals  Ampudia  and 
Arista,  commanding  on  the  frontier,  seriously  endangered  the 
safety  of  General  Taylor's  force,  and  it  became  necessary  for 
Congress  to  strengthen  it  by  prompt  reinforcements.  In  this 
way  the  war  was  commenced.  No  formal  declaration  had  taken 
place,  nor  had  it  been  in  the  power  of  Congress  to  make  known 
its  will  on  the  subject,  till  an  absolute  necessity  arose  of  rein 
forcing  General  Taylor,  and  the  subject  had  ceased  to  be  one 
for  legislative  discretion. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  was  of  course  impossible  for 
Mr.  Webster  to  approve  the  war.  It  had  been  brought  on  by 
the  executive  will,  and  without  the  concurrence  of  Congress  till 
Congress  had  ceased  to  have  an  option,  and  its  well-known 
ulterior  objects  were  such  as  he  could  not  but  contemplate  with 
equal  disapprobation  and  alarm.  Still,  however,  in  common 
with  the  body  of  his  political  friends,  in  and  out  of  Congress, 
he  abstained  from  all  factious  opposition,  and  all  measures 
calculated  to  embarrass  the  government.  The  supplies  were 
voted  for  by  him,  but  he  never  ceased  to  urge  upon  the  Presi 
dent  to  pursue  a  magnanimous  policy  toward  the  distracted 
and  misgoverned  country  with  which  we  had  been  brought  in 
collision.  Nor  did  his  opinions  of  the  character  of  the  war  lead 
him  to  discourage  the  inclination  of  his  younger  son,  Mr.  Ed 
ward  Webster,  to  accept  a  commission  in  the  regiment  of  Mas- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.      Cxlvii 

sachusetts  Volunteers.  This  young  gentleman  had  evinced  an 
energy  beyond  his  years,  and  practical  talent  of  a  high  order,  as 
a  member  of -the  commission  for  marking  the  boundary  line 
between  Maine  and  the  British  Provinces  under  the  treaty  of 
Washington.  His  friends  looked  forward  with  confidence  to 
his  running  a  brilliant  military  career.  These  hopes,  like  those 
which  accompanied  so  many  other  gallant  and  patriotic  spirits 
to  the  scene  of  action,  were  destined  to  be  early  blasted.  Major 
Webster  fell  a  victim  to  the  labors  and  exposures  of  the  service, 
and  to  the  climate  of  the  country,  under  the  walls  of  Mexico. 

To  avoid  all  misconception,  it  may  be  proper  to  state  that 
Mr.  W^ebster  has  at  all  times  entertained  an  unfavorable  opin 
ion  of  the  various  administrations  by  which  Mexico,  almost 
ever  since  her  revolution,  has  been  successively  misgoverned. 
He  has  felt  constrained  to  regard  the  greater  part  of  them  as 
military  factions,  bent  more  upon  supplanting  each  other  than 
upon  promoting  the  welfare  of  their  country.  He  was  fully 
aware  of  the  justice  of  many  of  the  complaints  of  citizens  of 
the  United  States  for  wrongs  inflicted  and  justice  withheld. 
Both  while  in  the  executive  government  himself,  and  as  a  mem 
ber  of  Congress,  he  had  uniformly  expressed  himself  in  terms  of 
severe  condemnation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Mexican  govern 
ment  in  withholding  or  delaying  redress  ;  and  he  foresaw  and 
foretold  that,  in  obstinately  refusing  to  recognize  the  independ 
ence  of  Texas,  she  was  laying  up  for  herself  a  store  of  conse 
quences  the  most  humiliating  and  disastrous.  Nothing  but  the 
most  deplorable  infatuation  could  have  led  the  government  of 
Mexico  to  suppose,  that,  after  the  independence  of  Texas  had 
been  recognized  by  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Belgium,  it  would  be  possible  for  a  power  as  feeble  as  that 
of  Mexico  to  reduce  the  rebellious  province  to  submission.  If 
any  confirmation  of  these  statements  is  needed,  it  may  be 
found  in  Mr.  Webster's  letter  to  Mr.  de  Bocanegra,  in  the  sixth 
volume  of  this  collection. 

The  settlement  of  the  controversy  with  England  relative  to 
the  boundary  of  Oregon  was  effected  in  the  first  year  of  Mr. 
Folk's  administration.  The  foundations  for  this  adjustment 
had  long  been  laid ;  in  fact,  as  long  ago  as  the  administration  of 
Mr.  Monroe,  the  United  States  had  offered  to  England  the  ob 
vious  basis  of  the  extension  of  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude 


cxlviii    BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

to  the  Pacific.  Great  Britain  allowed  herself  to  be  influenced 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  so  far,  as  to  insist  upon  follow 
ing  the  course  of  the  Columbia  down  to  the  sea.  She  even 
took  the  extravagant  ground  that,  although  the  United  States, 
by  the  Louisiana  and  Florida  treaties,  combined  the  Spanish 
and  the  French  titles  with  that  of  actual  contiguity  and  prior 
discovery  of  the  Columbia  River,  they  had  no  exclusive  title  to 
any  portion  of  the  territory,  but  that  it  was  all  subject  to  her 
own  joint  and  rival  claim.  This  unreasonable  pretension 
brought  the  two  countries  to  the  verge  of  war.  The  Baltimore 
Convention,  in  the  year  1844,  set  up  a  claim,  equally  unreasona 
ble,  to  the  whole  of  the  territory.  President  Polk  in  his  inaugu 
ral  message,  quoting  the  words  of  the  resolution  of  the  Baltimore 
Convention,  pronounced  our  title  to  the  territory  to  be  "  clear 
and  unquestionable." 

The  assertion  of  these  opposite  extremes  of  pretension  hap 
pily  resulted  in  the  final  adjustment  on  the  forty-ninth  de 
gree.  Mr.  Webster  had  uniformly  been  of  opinion  that  this 
was  the  fair  basis  of  settlement.  Had  he  supposed  that  an  ar 
rangement  could  have  been  effected  on  this  basis  with  Lord 
Ashburton,  he  would  gladly  have  included  it  in  the  treaty  of 
Washington.  After  Mr.  Webster's  retirement  from  the  De 
partment  of  State,  it  is  stated  by  President  Polk  that  Mr.  Up- 
shur  instructed  Mr.  Everett  to  offer  that  line  to  the  British 
government;  but  the  negotiation  had  in  the  mean  time,  by 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Pakenham,  been  transferred  to  Wash 
ington.  The  offer  of  the  forty-ninth  degree  of  latitude  was 
renewed  to  Mr.  Pakenham,  but  accompanied  with  conditions 
which  led  him  to  decline  it,  and  to  express  the  hope  that  the 
United  States  would  make  "  some  further  proposal  for  the  set 
tlement  of  the  Oregon  question  more  consistent  with  fairness 
and  equity,  and  with  the  reasonable  expectations  of  the  British 
government."  The  offer  thus  injudiciously  rejected  was  with 
drawn  by  the  administration.  In  this  dangerous  juncture  of 
affairs,  the  following  incidents  occurred,  which  we  give  in  the 
words  of  the  "  London  Examiner  "  :  — 

"  In  reply  to  a  question  put  to  him  in  reference  to  the  present  war 
establishments  of  this  country,  and  the  propriety  of  applying  the  princi 
ple  of  arbitration  in  the  settlement  of  disputes  arising  among  nations, 
Mr.  McGregor,  one  of  the  candidates  for  the  representation  of  Glasgow, 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        cxlix 

took  occasion  to  narrate  the  following  very  important  and  remarkable 
anecdote  in  connection  with  our  recent,  but  now  happily  terminated  dif 
ferences  with  the  United  States  on  the  Oregon  question.  At  the  time 
our  ambassador  at  Washington,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Pakenham,  refused  to  ne 
gotiate  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude  as  the  basis  of  a 
treaty,  and  when  by  that  refusal  the  danger  of  a  rupture  between  Great 
Britain  and  America  became  really  imminent,  Mr.  Daniel  Webster, 
formerly  Secretary  of  State  to  the  American  government,  wrote  a  letter 
to  Mr.  McGregor,  in  which  he  strongly  deprecated  Mr.  Pakenham's  con 
duct,  which,  if  persisted  in  and  adopted  at  home,  would,  to  a  certainty, 
embroil  the  two  countries,  and  suggested  an  equitable  compromise,  tak 
ing  the  forty-ninth  parallel  as  the  basis  of  an  adjustment.  Mr.  McGreg 
or  agreeing  entirely  with  Mr.  Webster  in  the  propriety  of  a  mutual 
giving  and  taking  to  avoid  a  rupture,  and  the  more  especially  as  the 
whole  territory  in  dispute  was  not  worth  £  20,000  to  either  power,  while 
the  preparations  alone  for  a  war  would  cost  a  great  deal  more  before  the 
parties  could  come  into  actual  conflict,  communicated  the  contents  of 
Mr.  Webster's  letter  to  Lord  John  Russell,  who  at  the  time  was  living  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Edinburgh,  and,  in  reply,  received  a  letter  from 
Lord  John,  in  which  he  stated  his  entire  accordance  with  the  proposal 
recommended  by  Mr.  Webster,  and  approved  of  by  Mr.  McGregor,  and 
requested  the  latter,  as  he  (Lord  John)  was  not  in  a  position  to  do  it 
himself,  to  intimate  his  opinion  to  Lord  Aberdeen.  Mr.  McGregor, 
through  Lord  Canning,  Under-Secretary  for  the  Foreign  Department, 
did  so,  and  the  result  was,  that  the  first  packet  that  left  England  carried 
out  to  America  the  proposal,  in  accordance  with  the  communication  al 
ready  referred  to,  on  which  the  treaty  of  Oregon  was  happily  concluded. 
Mr.  McGregor  may,  therefore,  be  very  justly  said  to  have  been  the  in 
strument  of  preserving  the  peace  of  the  world  ;  and  for  that  alone, 
even  if  he  had  no  other  services  to  appeal  to,  he  has  justly  earned  the 
applause  and  admiration,  not  of  his  own  countrymen  only,  but  of  all 
men  who  desire  to  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  human  race." 

Without  wishing  to  detract  in  any  degree  from  the  praise  due 
to  Mr.  McGregor  for  his  judicious  and  liberal  conduct  on  this 
occasion,  the  credit  of  the  main  result  is  exclusively  due  to  his 
American  correspondent.  A  powerful  influence  was  ascribed 
also  to  an  able  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  April,  1845, 
in  which  the  reasonableness  of  this  basis  of  settlement  was  set 
forth  with  great  ability. 

The  first  session  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress  was  signal 
ized  by  the  revival  of  the  sub-treasury  system,  and  the  overthrow 


(•I  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

of  the  tariff  of  1842.  At  a  moment  when  the  public  finances 
were,  in  reference  to  the  means  of  collection,  custody,  and  trans 
fer,  in  a  sound  and  healthy  condition,  the  administration  deemed 
it  expedient  to  subject  the  country  and  the  treasury  to  the  haz 
ard  and  inconvenience  of  a  change.  Mr.  Webster  spoke  with 
equal  earnestness  and  power  against  the  renewal  of  experiments 
which  had  already  proved  so  disastrous ;  but  the  bill  was  carried 
by  a  party  vote.  The  same  success  attended  the  President's 
recommendation  of  an  entire  change  in  the  revenue  system, 
by  which,  instead  of  specific  duties,  ad  valorem  duties  were 
to  be  assessed  on  the  foreign  valuation.  Various  other  changes 
were  made  in  the  tariff  established  in  1842,  equally  tending  to 
depress  our  own  manufactures,  and  to  give,  a  preference  to  for 
eign  over  native  labor,  and  this  even  in  cases  where  no  benefit 
could  be  expected  to  accrue  to  the  treasury  from  the  change. 
Mr.  Webster  made  a  truly  Herculean  effort  against  the  gov 
ernment  project,  in  his  speech  of  the  25th  and  26th  of  July, 
1846,  but  the  decree  had  gone  forth.  .  The  scale  was  turned 
by  the  Senators  from  the  new  State  of  Texas,  which  had  been 
brought  into  the  Union  by  the  votes  of  members  of  Congress 
whose  constituents  had  the  deepest  interest  in  sustaining  the 
tariff  of  1842. 

In  the  spring  of  1847,  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  Mr. 
Webster  undertook  a  tour  to  the  South.  His  object  was  to  pass 
by  the  way  of  the  Atlantic  States  to  New  Orleans,  and  to  as 
cend  the  Mississippi.  He  had  never  seen  that  part  of  the  Union, 
and  promised  himself  equal  gratification  and  instruction  from 
an  opportunity,  however  brief,  of  personal  inspection.  He  was 
ever  of  opinion  that  higher  motives  than  those  of  curiosity  and 
recreation  should  lead  the  citizens  of  different  parts  of  the  coun 
try  to  the  interchange  of  visits  of  this  kind.  That  they  had 
become  so  much  less  frequent  than  they  were  in  former  years  he 
regarded  as  one  of  the  inauspicious  features  of  the  times.  He 
was  accompanied  on  this  excursion  by  his  family.  They  passed 
hastily  through  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  to  South  Caro 
lina.  At  Charleston  he  was  received  with  the  most  distin 
guished  attention  and  cordiality.  He  was  welcomed  on  his 
arrival  by  an  assemblage  of  the  most  respectable  citizens.  En 
tertainments  were  given  him  by  the  New  England  Society  of 
Charleston  and  by  the  Charleston  Bar.  At  these  festivals  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  cll 

sentiments  and  speeches  were  of  the  most  cordial  description. 
Similar  hospitalities  and  honors  were  paid  him  at  Columbia, 
Augusta,  and  Savannah.  No  trace  of  sectional  or  party  feeling 
detracted  from  the  warmth  of  his  reception.  His  visit  was  ev 
erywhere  regarded  as  an  interesting  public  event.  Unhappily, 
his  health  failed  him  on  his  arrival  at  Savannah ;  and  the  ad 
vance  of  the  season  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  execute  the 
original  project  of  a  journey  to  New  Orleans.  He  was  com 
pelled  to  hasten  back  to  the  North. 

Meantime  events  of  higher  importance  were  in  progress. 
Success  crowned  our  arms  in  the  Mexican  war.  The  military 
skill,  gallantry,  and  indomitable  resolution  of  the  great  captains 
to  whom  the  chief  command  of  the  war  had  been  committed, 
(though  not  by  the  first  choice  of  the  administration,)  aided  by 
the  spirit  and  discipline  of  the  troops,  achieved  the  conquest  of 
Mexico.  Peace  was  dictated  to  her  from  Washington,  and  a 
treaty  concluded,  by  which  extensive  portions  of  her  territory, 
comprising  the  province  of  New  Mexico  and  a  considerable  part 
of  California,  were  ceded  to  the  United  States.  Mr.  Webster, 
foreseeing  that  these  cessions  would  prove  a  Pandora's  box  of 
discord  and  strife  between  the  different  sections  of  the  Union, 
voted  against  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  He  was  sustained 
in  this  course  by  some  Southern  Whig  Senators,  but  the  con 
stitutional  majority  deemed  any  treaty  better  than  the  continua 
tion  of  the  war. 

With  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  question  what  should  be 
done  with  the  territories  presented  itself  with  alarming  promi 
nence.  Formidable  under  any  circumstances,  it  became  doubly 
so  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  and  the 
prodigious  rush  to  that  quarter  of  adventurers  from  every  part 
of  the  world.  Population  flocked  into  and  took  possession  of 
the  country,  its  ancient  political  organization,  feeble  at  best,  was 
subverted,  and  the  immediate  action  of  Congress  was  necessary 
to  prevent  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  House  of  Representatives 
passed  a  bill  providing  for  the  organization  of  a  territorial  gov 
ernment  for  the  provinces  newly  acquired  from  Mexico,  with  the 
antislavery  proviso,  borrowed  from  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  This 
bill  failed  to  pass  the  Senate,  and  nothing  was  done  at  the  first 
sessioii4of  the  Thirtieth  Congress  to  meet  the  existing  emergency 
in  California. 


clii          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

At  the  second  session,  bills  were  introduced  into  the  Senate 
for  erecting  California  and  New  Mexico  into  States ;  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  to  be  left  to  the  people  of  the  States  respectively. 
These  bills,  however,  did  not  pass  the  Senate.  A  few  days  be 
fore  the  close  of  the  session,  Mr.  Walker  of  Wisconsin  moved 
an  amendment  to  the  general  appropriation  bill  for  the  support 
of  government,  providing  for  the  extension  of  the  revenue  laws 
of  the  United  States  over  California  and  New  Mexico;  to  ex 
tend  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
these  territories,  together  with  all  the  laws  applicable  to  them ; 
and  granting  authority  to  the  President  to  appoint  the  officers 
necessary  to  carry  these  provisions  into  effect.  This  amend 
ment  prevailed  in  the  Senate,  but  was  further  amended  in  the 
House,  by  adding  to  it  the  "  Wilmot  Proviso."  The  Senate  re 
fused  to  accede  to  this  amendment  of  their  amendment,  and 
the  two  houses  were  brought  to  the  verge  of  a  disagreement, 
which  would  have  prevented  the  passage  of  the  general  appro 
priation  bill,  and  stopped  the  wheels  of  government.  The  de 
bates  in  the  Senate  were  of  the  most  impassioned  kind,  and 
were  protracted  till  five  o'clock  of  Sunday  morning,  the  4th  of 
March  ;  when  the  Senate,  on  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Webster, 
disagreed  to  the  amendment  of  the  House  relative  to  California, 
and  at  the  same  time  receded  from  their  own  amendment,  and 
thus  passed  the  genera]  appropriation  bill,  as  it  originally  came 
from  the  House.  All  provision  for  the  territories  was  necessa 
rily  sacrificed  by  this  course ;  but  a  bill  which  had  previously 
passed  the  House,  extending  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United 
States  to  California,  was  passed  by  the  Senate,  and  rescued  the 
people  of  California  from  an  entire  destitution  of  government 
on  behalf  of  the  United  States.  The  Senate  on  this  occasion 
was,  for  the  first  time  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
on  the  verge  of  disorganization  ;  and  it  was  felt  throughout  the 
day  and  night,  that  it  was  saved  from  falling  into  that  condition 
mainly  by  the  parliamentary  tact  and  personal  influence  of  Mr. 
Webster.  This  tribute  was  paid  to  Mr.  Webster's  arduous 
exertions  on  that  occasion  by  a  member  of  Congress  warmly 
opposed  to  him. 

Not  the  least  important  consequence  of  the  Mexican  war  was 
the  political  revolution  in  the  United  States  of  which  it  was  the 
cause.  When  the  policy  of  invading  and  conquering  Mexico 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         cliii 

was  determined  upon,  it  was  probably  regarded  by  the  adminis 
tration  as  a  measure  calculated  to  strengthen  their  party.  Op 
ponents  were  likely  to  expose  themselves  to  odium  by  disapprov 
ing  the  war.  The  commanding  generals  were  both  Whigs,  and 
one  of  them  had  been  named  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 
It  was  probably  thought  that,  if  they  succeeded,  the  glory  would 
accrue  to  the  administration ;  if  they  failed,  the  discredit  would 
fall  upon  themselves. 

If  anticipations  like  these  were  formed,  they  were  signally 
disappointed.  A  series  of  the  most  brilliant  triumphs  crowner 
the  arms  both  of  General  Taylor  and  General  Scott.  Those  of 
General  Taylor  were  first  in  time ;  and  as  they  had  been  pre 
ceded  by  doubts,  anxieties,  and,  in  the  case  of  Buena  Vista,  by 
rumors  of  disaster,  they  took  the  stronger  hold  of  the  public 
mind.  The  nomination  for  the  Presidency  was  not  reserved 
for  the  Whig  convention.  It  was  in  effect  made  at  Palto  Alto 
and  Monterey,  and  was  confirmed  at  Buena  Vista.  It  was  a 
movement  of  the  people  to  which  resistance  was  in  vain. 

Statesmen  and  civilians,  however,  might  well  pause  for  a 
moment.  The  late  experience  of  the  country,  under  a  President 
elected  in  consequence  of  military  popularity,  was  not  favora 
ble  to  a  repetition  of  the  experiment ;  and  General  Taylor  was 
wholly  unknown  in  political  life.  At  the  Whig  convention  in 
Philadelphia  other  distinguished  Whigs,  General  Scott,  Mr. 
Clay,  and  Mr.  Webster,  had  divided  the  votes  with  General 
Taylor.  He  was,  however,  selected  by  a  great  majority  as  the 
candidate  of  the  party.  Mr.  Webster  took  the  view  of  this 
nomination  which  might  have  been  expected  from  a  veteran 
statesman  and  a  civilian  of  forty  years'  experience  in  the  service 
of  the  country.  He  had,  in  common  with  the  whole  Whig 
party,  in  General  Jackson's  case,  opposed  the  nomination  of  a 
military  chieftain.  How  many  Whigs  who  hailed  General 
Taylor's  nomination  with  enthusiasm  had  as  good  reasons  for  so 
doing  as  Mr.  Webster  had  for  the  moderation  and  reserve  with 
which  he  spoke  of  it  in  his  Marshfield  speech  ?  Few  persons, 
at  the  present  day,  will  find  in  that  speech  any  thing,  with  re 
spect  to  General  Taylor's  nomination,  from  which  a  candid 
and  impartial  judgment  would  dissent ;  and  it  is  well  known, 
that,  in  the  progress  of  the  canvass,  that  nomination  found  no 
firmer  supporter  than  Mr.  Webster.  On  his  accession  to  the 


Cliv         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Presidency,  General  Taylor  found  Mr.  Webster  disposed  and 
prepared  to  give  his  administration  a  cordial  and  efficient  sup 
port. 

In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1849  events  of  the  utmost 
importance  occurred  in  California.  The  people  of  that  region, 
left  almost  entirely  without  a  government  by  Congress,  met  in 
convention  to  form  a  constitution ;  and  although  nearly  half  of 
the  members  who  were  new-comers  were  from  the  Southern 
States,  they  unanimously  agreed  to  the  prohibition  of  slavery. 
The  constitution  prepared  by  the  convention  was  accepted  by 
the  people,  and  with  it  they  applied  for  admission  to  the 
Union.  General  Riley,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  Pres 
ident  to  command  the  forces  in  that  territory,  was  instructed 
to  facilitate,  as  far  as  it  was  in  his  power,  the  assembling  of  a 
convention ;  and  the  course  pursued  by  the  convention  and  the 
people  in  the  formation  of  the  constitution  was  understood  to 
be  in  all  respects  approved  by  President  Taylor. 

Other  occurrences,  however,  had  in  the  mean  time  taken  place, 
which  materially  increased  the  difficulties  attending  the  territo 
rial  question.  The  subject  of  slavery  had  for  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  been  agitated  with  steadily  increasing  warmth,  and  for 
the  latter  portion  of  the  period  with  growing  violence.  On  the 
acquisition  of  the  Mexican  provinces,  the  representatives  of  the 
non-slaveholding  States  generally  deemed  it  their  duty  to  in 
troduce  into  the  acts  passed  for  their  government  a  restriction 
analogous  to  the  antislavery  proviso  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 
A  motion  to  this  effect  having  been  made  by  Mr.  Wilmot 
of  Pennsylvania,  by  way  of  amendment  to  one  of  the  ap 
propriation  bills  passed  during  the  war,  the  restriction  has  ob 
tained  the  name  of  the  "  Wilmot  Proviso."  This  motion  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  was  extensively  seconded  by  the 
press,  by  popular  assemblies,  and  by  legislative  resolutions 
throughout  the  non-slaveholding  States,  and  caused  a  consider 
able  increase  of  antislavery  agitation. 

The  South,  of  course,  took  an  interest  in  the  question  not 
inferior  to  that  of  the  North.  The  extension  of  the  United 
States  on  the  southwestern  frontier  has  long  been  a  cardinal 
point  in  the  policy  of  most  Southern  statesmen.  The  applica 
tion  of  an  antislavery  proviso  to  territories  acquired  by  conquest 
in  that  quarter  came  into  direct  conflict  with  this  policy.  Meet- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.          clv 

ings  were  accordingly  held  at  Washington  during  the  first  ses 
sion  of  the  Tnirtieth  Congress,  attended  by  a  majority  of  the 
members  from  the  slaveholding  States,  to  take  into  consideration 
the  measures  proper  to  be  adopted.  At  one  of  these  meetings 
a  sub-committee  was  appointed,  of  which  Mr.  Calhoun  was 
chairman,  to  prepare  an  address  "  of  the  Southern  delegates  to 
their  constituents."  At  a  subsequent  meeting  a  substitute  for 
this  address  was  submitted  by  Mr.  Berrien  of  Georgia,  under 
the  title  of  an  address  "  to  the  people  of  the  United  States." 
The  original  paper  was,  however,  adopted  in  preference,  and 
received  the  signatures  of  forty-eight  of  the  members  of  Con 
gress  from  the  slaveholding  States.  Of  these  all  but  two  were 
of  the  Democratic  party.* 

These  proceedings  contributed  materially  to  increase  the  dis 
contents  existing  at  the  South.  Nor  was  the  progress  of  ex 
citement  less  rapid  at  the  North.  The  nomination  of  General 
Taylor  by  the  Whig  convention,  accompanied  by  the  refusal 
of  that  convention  to  countenance  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  led  to 
the  organization  of  the  Free  Soil  party  in  the  non-slaveholding 
States.  In  the  summer  of  1848,  a  convention  of  delegates  of 
this  party  assembled  at  Buffalo  in  New  York,  at  which  an 
antislavery  platform  was  adopted,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  was 
nominated  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 

These  occurrences  and  the  state  of  feeling  which  they  creat 
ed,  or  indicated,  appeared  to  Mr.  Webster  to  constitute  a  crisis 
in  the  condition  of  the  country  of  a  most  formidable  descrip 
tion.  Opinion  at  the  North  and  South  had,  in  his  judgment, 
either  reached,  or  was  rapidly  reaching,  a  point  at  which  the 
cooperation  of  the  two  sections  of  the  country  in  carrying  on 
the  government  as  coequal  members  of  the  Federal  Union 
would  cease  to  be  practicable.  The  constitutional  opinions 
and  the  views  on  the  subject  of  slavery  set  forth  in  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's  address  he  deemed  to  be  such  as  could  never  be  ac 
quiesced  in  by  the  non-slaveholding  States.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  organization  of  a  party  on  the  basis  of  antislavery 
agitation  at  the  North  appeared  to  him  equally  menacing  to 
the  Union.  The  professions  of  attachment  to  the  Union  and 
the  Constitution  made  on  both  sides,  and  often,  no  doubt,  in 

*  In  compiling  this  narrative  much  use  has  been  made  of  the  third  volume  of 
the  work  entitled  "  The  Statesman's  Manual,"  a  most  useful  work  of  reference. 


clvi         BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

entire  good  faith,  did  but  increase  the  danger,  by  their  tendency 
to  produce  misapprehension  and  self-deception  as  to  the  really 
irreconcilable  nature  of  the  opposite  extremes  of  opinion. 

It  was  his  profound  and  anxious  sense  of  the  dangers  of  the 
Union,  in  this  crisis  of  affairs,  which  reconciled  Mr.  Webster  to 
the  nomination  of  General  Taylor.  He  saw  in  his  position  as 
a  citizen  of  a  Southern  State  and  a  slaveholder  the  basis  of 
support  to  his  administration  from,  that  quarter  of  the  Union ; 
while  his  connection  with  the  Whig  party,  the  known  modera 
tion  of  his  views,  with  his  declared  sentiments  on  the  subject 
of  the  Presidential  veto,  were  a  sufficient  ground  for  the  confi 
dence  of  the  North.  In  fact,  in  the  existing  state  of  things,  it 
was  soon  apparent  that  there  was  no  other  candidate  of  either 
party  so  well  calculated  to  allay  sectional  differences,  and  guide 
the  vessel  of  state  over  the  stormy  sea  of  excitement  and  agi 
tation. 

But  whatever  reliance  might  justly  have  been  placed  upon 
the  character  and  disposition  of  General  Taylor,  the  prospect 
of  affairs  was  sufficiently  dark  and  inauspicious.  Thoughtful 
persons  looked  forward  to  a  struggle  on  the  territorial  question, 
at  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-first  Congress,  which  would 
convulse  the  country.  In  this  state  of  things  the  event  which 
we  have  already  alluded  to  took  place,  and  California  presented 
herself  for  admission  as  a  State,  with  a  constitution  prohibiting 
slavery.  As  California  was  the  only  portion  of  the  Mexican 
territory  in  reference  to  which  the  question  was  of  practical  im 
portance,  Mr.  Webster  derived  from  this  unexpected  and  sea 
sonable  occurrence  a  gleam  of  hope.  It  removed  a  topic  of  con 
troversy  in  reference  to  which  it  had  seemed  hopeless  to  propose 
any  terms  of  compromise ;  and  it  opened,  as  it  were  providen 
tially,  the  door  for  an  understanding  on  other  points,  on  the  basis 
of  carrying  into  execution  existing  compacts  and  constitutional 
provisions  on  the  one  hand,  and  not  strenuously  insisting,  on 
the  other  hand,  upon  applying  the  antislavery  proviso  where, 
as  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  he  was  persuaded  it  could  be  of 
no  practical  importance. 

On  these  principles,  and  with  this  object  in  view,  Mr.  Webster 
made  his  great  speech  of  the  7th  of  March,  1850. 

It  would  be  too  much  to  expect,  in  reference  to  a  subject 
of  so  much  difficulty,  and  one  on  which  the  public  mind  has 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.        clvii 

been  so  greatly  excited,  that  a  speech  of  this  description  should 
find  universal  favor  in  any  part  of  the  country.  It  is  believed, 
however,  that  by  the  majority  of  patriotic  and  reflecting  citizens 
in  every  part  of  the  United  States,  while  on  single  topics  there 
may  be  differences  of  opinion,  it  has  been  regarded  as  holding  out 
a  practical  basis  for  the  adjustment  of  controversies,  which  had 
already  gone  far  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  could  not  be  much 
longer  pursued  without  producing  that  result.  If  those  who 
have  most  strongly  expressed  their  dissent  from  the  doctrines  of 
the  speech  (we  do  not,  of  course,  allude  to  the  mere  clamor  of 
political  or  personal  enemies)  will  pause  from  the  work  of  denun 
ciation,  and  make  the  attempt  themselves  to  lay  down  a  practi 
cable  platform  on  which  this  great  controversy  can  in  fact  be 
settled,  and  the  union  of  the  States  perpetuated,  they  will  not 
find  it  so  hard  to  censure  what  is  done  by  others  as  to  do  better 
themselves.  It  is  quite  easy  to  construct  a  Southern  platform 
or  a  Northern  platform ;  the  difficulty  is  to  find  a  basis  on  which 
South  and  North  will  be  able  and  willing-  to  stand  together. 
Of  all  those  who  have  condemned  the  views  of  Mr.  Webster, 
who  has  gone  further  than  he,  in  the  speech  of  the  7th  of  March, 
1850,  to  furnish  such  a  basis  ?  Or  rather,  we  may  ask,  who  of 
those  that  have  been  loudest  in  condemnation  of  his  course  has 
taken  a  single  step  towards  effecting  this  paramount  object? 

Mr.  Webster's  thoughts  are  known  to  have  been  earnestly 
and  profoundly  employed  on  this  subject  from  the  commence 
ment  of  the  session.  He  saw  beforehand  the  difficulties  and 
the  dangers  incident  to  the  step  which  he  adopted,  but  he  be 
lieved  that,  unless  some  such  step  was  taken  in  the  North, 
the  separation  of  the  States  was  inevitable.  The  known  state 
of  opinion  of  leading  members  of  Congress  led  him  to  look  for 
little  support  from  them.  He  opened  the  matter  to  some  of 
his  political  friends,  but  they  did  not  encourage  him  in  the 
course  he  felt  bound  to  pursue.  He  found  that  he  could  not 
expect  the  cooperation  of  the  members  of  Congress  from  his  own 
State,  nor  that  of  many  of  the  members  from  the  other  Northern 
States.  He  gave  up  all  attempt  to  rally  beforehand  a  party 
which  would  sustain  him.  His  own  description  of  his  feelings 
at  the  time  was,  "that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  embark 
alone  on  what  he  was  aware  would  prove  a  stormy  sea,  be 
cause,  in  that  case,  should  final  disaster  ensue,  there  would 

VOL.  i.  n 


clviii  BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.  • 

be  but  one  life  lost."  But  he  believed  that  the  step  which  he 
was  about  to  take  would  be  sanctioned  by  the  mass  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  in  that  reliance  he  went  forward. 

While  the  compromise  measures  were  still  undecided  before 
Congress,  about  midsummer  of  1850,  President  Taylor  was  re 
moved  from  his  high  office  by  death.  In  the  reorganization  of 
the  executive  occasioned  by  this  event,  Mr.  Webster,  to  the  gen 
eral  satisfaction  of  the  country,  was  placed  by  President  Fill- 
more  at  the  head  of  the  administration.  Subsequent  events  are 
too  recent  to  need  to  be  described.  The  correspondence  with  the 
Austrian  Charge  d' Affaires  is  the  worthy  complement,  after  an 
interval  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  the  profound  discussion  of 
international  politics  contained  in  the  speech  of  January,  1824, 
on  the  revolution  in  Greece,  and  that  of  1826,  on  the  Congress 
of  Panama.  We  have  before  us  a  translation  of  this  cor 
respondence  furtively  published  in  Germany,  and  circulated 
throughout  the  Austrian  empire.  The  fervid  appeals  to  the 
patriotism  of  the  people,  with  which  Mr.  Webster  has  electri 
fied  the  Union  on  various  occasions  during  the  last  nine  months, 
have  contributed  materially  to  the  great  work  of  sectional  con 
ciliation;  and  his  last  noble  effort,  on  laying  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Capitol,  will  be  read  with  admiration  as  long  as  the  Capi 
tol  itself  shall  last. 

Such,  in  a  brief  and  imperfect  narrative,  is  the  public  life  of 
Mr.  Webster,  extending  over  a  period  of  forty  years,  marked  by 
the  occurrence  of  events  of  great  importance.  It  has  been  the 
aim  of  the  writer  to  prevent  the  pen  of  the  biographer  from  be 
ing  too  much  influenced  by  the  partiality  of  the  friend.  Should 
he  seem  to  the  candid  not  wholly  to  have  escaped  that  error, 
(which,  however,  he  trusts  will  not  be  the  case,)  he  ventures  to 
hope  that  it  will  be  forgiven  to  an  intimacy  which  commenced 
in  the  youth  of  one  of  the  parties  and  the  boyhood  of  the  other, 
and  which  has  subsisted  for  nearly  half  a  century.  It  will  be 
admitted,  he  thinks,  by  every  one,  that  this  career,  however  inad 
equately  delineated,  has  been  one  of  singular  eminence  and  bril 
liancy.  Entering  upon  public  life  at  the  close  of  the  first  epoch 
in  the  political  history  of  the  United  States  under  the  present 
Constitution,  Mr.  Webster  has  stood  below  none  of  the  distin» 
guished  men  who  have  impressed  their  character  on  the  second. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER.         clix 

There  is  a  class  of  public  questions  in  reference  to  which  the 
opinions  of  most  men  are  greatly  influenced  by  prejudices  found 
ed  in  natural  temperament,  early  association,  and  real  or  sup 
posed  local  interest.  As  far  as  such  questions  are  concerned, 
it  is  too  much  to  hope  that,  in  times  of  high  party  excitement, 
full  justice  will  be  done  to  prominent  statesmen  by  those  of 
their  contemporaries  who  differ  from  them.  We  greatly  err, 
however,  if  candid  men  of  all  parties,  and  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  do  not  accord  to  Mr.  Webster  the  praise  of  having 
formed  to  himself  a  large  and  generous  view  of  the  character  of 
an  American  statesman,  and  of  having  adopted  the  loftiest 
standard  of  public  conduct.  They  will  agree  that  he  has  con 
ceived,  in  all  its  importance,  the  position  of  the  country  as  a 
member  of  the  great  family  of  nations,  and  as  the  leading  re 
publican  government.  In  reference  to  domestic  politics  it  will 
be  as  generally  conceded,  that,  reposing  less  than  most  public 
men  on  a  party  basis,  it  has  been  the  main  object  of  his  life  to 
confirm  and  perpetuate  the  great  work  of  the  constitutional 
fathers  of  the  last  generation. 

By  their  wisdom  and  patriotic  forethought  we  are  blessed 
with  a  system  in  which  the  several  States  are  brought  into  a 
union  so  admirably  composed  and  balanced,  —  both  complicated 
and  kept  distinct  with  such  skill,  —  as  to  seem  less  a  work  of 
human  prudence  than  of  Providential  interposition.*  Mr.  Web 
ster  has  at  all  times  been  fully  aware  of  the  evils  of  anarchy, 
discord,  and  civil  war  at  home,  and  of  utter  national  insignifi 
cance  abroad,  from  which  the  formation  of  the  Union  saved  us. 
He  has  been  not  less  sensible  to  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome 
the  perils  to  be  encountered,  and  the  sufferings  to  be  borne,  be 
fore  this  wonderful  framework  of  government  could  be  estab 
lished.  And  he  has  been  firmly  persuaded  that,  if  once  de 
stroyed,  it  can  never  be  reconstructed.  With  these  views,  his 
political  life  has  been  consecrated  to  the  maintenance  in  all  their 

*  This  idea  is  beautifully  expressed  in  the  following  passage  of  a  late  letter 
from  Mr.  Webster,  in  reply  to  an  invitation  from  the  citizens  of  Macon,  Geor 
gia:— 

"  The  States  are  united,  not  consolidated  ; 

'  Not,  chaos-like,  together  crushed  and  bruised, 
But,  like  the  world,  harmoniously  confused, 
Where  order  in  variety  we  see  ; 
And  where,  though  all  things  differ,  all  agree.' 


ck          BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

strength  of  the  principles  on  which  the  Constitution  rests,  and  to 
the  support  of  the  system  of  government  created  by  it. 

The  key  to  his  whole  political  course  is  the  belief  that,  when 
the  Union  is  dissolved,  the  internal  peace,  the  vigorous  growth, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  States,  and  the  welfare  of  their  inhab 
itants,  are  blighted  for  ever,  and  that,  while  the  Union  endures, 
all  else  of  trial  and  calamity  which  can  befall  a  nation  may 
be  remedied  or  borne.  So  believing,  he  has  pursued  a  course 
which  has  earned  for  him  an  honored  name  among  those 
who  have  discharged  the  duty  of  good  citizens  with  the  most 
distinguished  ability,  zeal,  and  benefit  to  the  country.  In  the 
relations  of  civilized  life,  there  is  no  higher  service  which  man 
can  render  to  man,  than  thus  to  preserve  a  wise  constitution  of 
government  in  healthful  action.  Nor  does  the  most  eloquent 
of  the  statesmen  of  antiquity  content  himself  with  pronouncing 
this  the  highest  human  merit.  In  that  admirable  treatise  on 
the  Republic,  of  which  some  precious  chapters  have  been  re 
stored  to  us  after  having  been  lost  for  ages,  he  does  not  hesi 
tate  to  affirm,  that  there  is  nothing  in  which  human  virtue  ap 
proaches  nearer  the  divine,  than  in  establishing  and  preserving 
states :  "  neque  enim  ulla  res  est,  in  qua  propius  ad  deorum  nu- 
men  virtus  accedat  humana,  quam  civitates  aut  condere  novas 
aut  conservare  jam  conditas."  * 

*  M.  Tulli  Ciceronis  de  Re  Publica  quae  supersunt,  edente  Angelo  Maio.  Lib. 
I.  §  7. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


VOL.    I. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


THE  first  public  anniversary  celebration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
at  Plymouth  took  place  under  the  auspices  of  the  "  Old  Colony  Club," 
of  whose  formation  an  account  may  be  found  in  the  interesting  little 
work  of  William  S.  Russell,  Esq.,  entitled  "  Guide  to  Plymouth  and 
Recollections  of  the  Pilgrims." 

This  club  was  formed  for  general  purposes  of  social  intercourse,  in 
1769  ;  but  its  members  determined,  by  a  vote  passed  on  Monday  the  18th 
of  December  of  that  year,  "  to  keep  "  Friday,  the  22d,  in  commemora 
tion  of  the  landing  of  the  fathers.  A  particular  account  of  the  simple 
festivities  of  this  first  public  celebration  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
will  be  found  at  page  220  of  Mr.  Russell's  work. 

The  following  year,  the  anniversary  was  celebrated  much  in  the  same 
manner  as  in  1769,  with  the  addition  of  a  short  address,  pronounced 
"  with  modest  and  decent  firmness,  by  a  member  of  the  club,  Edward 
Winslow,  Jr.,  Esq.,"  being  the  first  address  ever  delivered  on  this  occa 
sion. 

In  1771,  it  was  suggested  by  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins,  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  at  Plymouth,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  club,  "  whether  it 
would  not  be  agreeable,  for  the  entertainment  and  instruction  of  the  rising 
generation  on  these  anniversaries,  to  have  a  sermon  in  public,  some  part 
of  the  day,  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  occasion."  This  recommendation 
prevailed,  and  an  appropriate  discourse  was  delivered  the  following  year 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robbins. 

In  1773  the  Old  Colony  Club  was  dissolved,  in  consequence  of  the 
conflicting  opinions  of  its  members  on  the  great  political  questions  then 
agitated.  Notwithstanding  this  event,  the  anniversary  celebrations  of  the 
22d  of  December  continued  without  interruption  till  1780,  when  they 
were  suspended.  After  an  interval  of  fourteen  years,  a  public  discourse 
was  again  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robbins.  Private  celebrations  took 
place  the  four  following  years,  and  from  that  time  till  the  year  1819,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions,  the  day  was  annually  commemorated,  and  public 


4  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

addresses  were  delivered  by  distinguished  clergymen  and  laymen  ol 
Massachusetts. 

In  1820  the  "  Pilgrim  Society  "  was  formed  by  the  citizens  of  Plymouth 
and  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  in  other  places,  desirous  of  uniting 
"  to  commemorate  the  landing,  and  to  honor  the  memory  of  the  intrepid 
men  who  first  set  foot  on  Plymouth  rock."  The  foundation  of  this  soci 
ety  gave  a  new  impulse  to  the  anniversary  celebrations  of  this  great  event. 
The  Hon.  Daniel  Webster  was  requested  to  deliver  the  public  address  on 
the  22d  of  December  of  that  year,  and  the  following  discourse  was  pro 
nounced  by  him  on  the  ever-memorable  occasion.  Great  public  expecta 
tion  was  awakened  by  the  fame  of  the  orator ;  an  immense  concourse 
assembled  at  Plymouth  to  unite  in  the  celebration ;  and  it  may  be  safely 
anticipated,  that  some  portion  of  the  powerful  effect  of  the  following  ad 
dress  on  the  minds  of  those  who  were  so  fortunate  as  to  hear  it,  will  be 
'perpetuated  by  the  press  to  the  latest  posterity. 

From  1820  to  the  present  day,  with  occasional  interruptions,  the  22d 
of  December  has  been  celebrated  by  the  Pilgrim  Society.  A  list  of  all 
those  by  whom  anniversary  discourses  have  been  delivered  since  the  first 
organization  of  the  Old  Colony  Club,  in  1769,  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Rus 
sell's  work. 

Nor  has  the  notice  of  the  day  been  confined  to  New  England.  Public 
celebrations  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  have  been  frequent  in  other 
parts  of  the  country,  particularly  in  New  York.  The  New  England  So 
ciety  of  that  city  has  rarely  permitted  the  day  to  pass  without  appropriate 
honors.  Similar  societies  have  been  formed  at  Philadelphia,  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  and  Cincinnati,  and  the  day  has  been  publicly  commemorated  in 
several  other  parts  of  the  country. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.' 


LET  us  rejoice  that  we  behold  this  day.  Let  us  be  thankful 
that  we  have  lived  to  see  the  bright  and  happy  breaking  of  the 
auspicious  morn,  which  commences  the  third  century  of  the 
history  of  New  England.  Auspicious,  indeed,  —  bringing  a  hap 
piness  beyond  the  common  allotment  of  Providence  to  men,  — 
full  of  present  joy,  and  gilding  with  bright  beams  the  prospect 
of  futurity,  is  the  dawn  that  awakens  us  to  the  commemoration 
of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Living  at  an  epoch  which  naturally  marks  the  progress  of  the 
history  of  our  native  land,  we  Have  come  hither  to  celebrate  the 
great  event  with  which  that  history  commenced.  For  ever  hon 
ored  be  this,  the  place  of  our  fathers'  refuge !  For  ever  remem 
bered  the  day  which  saw  them,  weary  and  distressed,  broken  in 
every  thing  but  spirit,  poor  in  all  but  faith  and  courage,  at  last 
secure  from  the  dangers  of  wintry  seas,  and  impressing  this 
shore  with  the  first  footsteps  of  civilized  man ! 

It  is  a  noble  faculty  of  our  nature  which  enables  us  to  con 
nect  our  thoughts,  our  sympathies,  and  our  happiness  with  what 
is  distant  in  place  or  time ;  and,  looking  before  and  after,  to  hold 
communion  at  once  with  our  ancestors  and  our  posterity.  Hu 
man  and  mortal  although  we  are,  we  are  nevertheless  not  mere 
insulated  beings,  without  relation  to  the  past  or  the  future. 
Neither  the  point  of  time,  nor  the  spot  of  earth,  in  which  we 
physically  live,  bounds  our  rational  and  intellectual  enjoyments. 
We  live  in  the  past  by  a  knowledge  of  its  history ;  and  in  the 
future  by  hope  and  anticipation.  By  ascending  to  an  associa 
tion  with  our  ancestors ;  by  contemplating  their  example  and 

*  A  Discourse  delivered  at  Plymouth,  on  the  22d  of  December,  1320. 
1* 


6  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

studying  their  character;  by  partaking  their  sentiments,  and  im 
bibing  their  spirit ;  by  accompanying  them  in  their  toils,  by  sym 
pathizing  in  their  sufferings,  and  rejoicing  in  their  successes  and 
their  triumphs ;  we  seem  to  belong  to  their  age,  and  to  mingle 
our  own  existence  with  theirs.  We  become  their  contempo 
raries,  live  the  lives  which  they  lived,  endure  what  they  endured, 
and  partake  in  the  rewards  which  they  enjoyed.  And  in  like 
manner,  by  running  along  the  line  of  future  time,  by  contem 
plating  the  probable  fortunes  of  those  who  are  coming  after  us, 
by  attempting  something  which  may  promote  their  happiness, 
and  leave  some  not  dishonorable  memorial  of  ourselves  for  their 
regard,  when  we  shall  sleep  with  the  fathers,  we  protract  our 
own  earthly  being,  and  seem  to  crowd  whatever  is  future,  as 
well  as  all  that  is  past,  into  the  narrow  compass  of  our  earthly 
existence.  As  it  is  not  a  vain  and  false,  but  an  exalted  and 
religious  imagination,  which  leads  us  to  raise  our  thoughts  from 
the  orb,  which,  amidst  this  universe  of  worlds,  the  Creator  has 
given  us  to  inhabit,  and  to  send  them  with  something  of  the 
feeling  which  nature  prompts,  and  teaches  to  be  proper  among 
children  of  the  same  Eternal  Parent,  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  myriads  of  fellow-beings,  with  which  his  goodness  has  peo 
pled  the  infinite  of  space ;  so  neither  is  it  false  or  vain  to  con 
sider  ourselves  as  interested  and  connected  with  our  whole  race, 
through  all  time ;  allied  to  our  ancestors ;  allied  to  our  posterity ; 
closely  compacted  on  all  sides  with  others ;  ourselves  being  but 
links  in  the  great  chain  of  being,  which  begins  with  the  origin 
of  our  race,  runs  onward  through  its  successive  generations, 
binding  together  the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future,  and  ter 
minating  at  last,  with  the  consummation  of  all  things  earthly, 
at  the  throne  of  God. 

There  may  be,  and  there  often  is,  indeed,  a  regard  for  ancestry, 
which  nourishes  only  a  weak  pride;  as  there  is  also  a  care  for 
posterity,  which  only  disguises  an  habitual  avarice,  or  hides  the 
workings  of  a  low  and  grovelling  vanity.  But  there  is  also  a 
moral  and  philosophical  respect  for  our  ancestors,  which  ele 
vates  the  character  and  improves  the  heart.  Next  to  the  sense 
of  religious  duty  and  moral  feeling,  I  hardly  know  what  should 
bear  with  stronger  obligation  on  a  liberal  and  enlightened  mind, 
than  a  consciousness  of  alliance  with  excellence  which  is  de 
parted  ;  and  a  consciousness,  too,  that  in  its  acts  and  conduct, 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  7 

and  even  in  its  sentiments  and  thoughts,  it  may  be  actively 
operating  on  the  happiness  of  those  who  come  after  it.  Poetry 
is  found  to  have  few  stronger  conceptions,  by  which  it  would 
affect  or  overwhelm  the  mind,  than  those  in  which  it  presents 
the  moving  and  speaking  image  of  the  departed  dead  to  the 
senses  of  the  living.  This  belongs  to  poetry,  only  because  it  is 
congenial  to  our  nature.  Poetry  is,  in  this  respect,  but  the  hand 
maid  of  true  philosophy  and  morality ;  it  deals  with  us  as  hu 
man  beings,  naturally  reverencing  those  whose  visible  connection 
with  this  state  of  existence  is  severed,  and  who  may  yet  exercise 
we  know  not  what  sympathy  with  ourselves ;  and  when  it  car 
ries  us  forward,  also,  and  shows  us  the  long  continued  result  of 
all  the  good  we  do,  in  the  prosperity  of  those  who  follow  us, 
till  it  bears  us  from  ourselves,  and  absorbs  us  in  an  intense 
interest  for  what  shall  happen  to  the  generations  after  us,  it 
speaks  only  in  the  language  of  our  nature,  and  affects  us  with 
sentiments  which  belong  to  us  as  human  beings. 

Standing  in  this  relation  to  our  ancestors  and  our  posterity, 
we  are  assembled  on  this  memorable  spot,  to  perform  the  duties 
which  that  relation  and  the  present  occasion  impose  upon  us. 
We  have  come  to  this  Rock,  to  record  here  our  homage  for  our 
Pilgrim  Fathers ;  our  sympathy  in  their  sufferings ;  our  gratitude 
for  their  labors ;  our  admiration  of  their  virtues ;  our  veneration 
for  their  piety ;  and  our  attachment  to  those  principles  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  which  they  encountered  the  dangers  of  the 
ocean,  the  storms  of  heaven,  the  violence  of  savages,  disease, 
exile,  and  famine,  to  enjoy  and  to  establish.  And  we  would 
leave  here,  also,  for  the  generations  which  are  rising  up  rapidly 
to  fill  our  places,  some  proof  that  we  have  endeavored  to  trans 
mit  the  great  inheritance  unimpaired ;  that  in  our  estimate  of 
public  principles  and  private  virtue,  in  our  veneration  of  relig 
ion  and  piety,  in  our  devotion  to  civil  and  religious  liberty,  in 
our  regard  for  whatever  advances  human  knowledge  or  improves 
human  happiness,  we  are  not  altogether  unworthy  of  our  origin. 

There  is  a  local  feeling  connected  with  this  occasion,  too 
strong  to  be  resisted ;  a  sort  of  genius  of  the  place,  which  in 
spires  and  awes  us.  We  feel  that  we  are  on  the  spot  where 
the  first  scene  of  our  history  was  laid ;  where  the  hearths  and 
altars  of  New  England  were  first  placed;  where  Christianity, 
and  civilization,  and  letters  made  their  first  lodgement,  in  a  vast 


8  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

extent  of  country,  covered  with  a  wilderness,  and  peopled  by 
roving  bnrbarians.  We  are  here,  at  the  season  of  the  year  at 
which  the  event  took  place.  The  imagination  irresistibly  arid 
rapidly  draws  around  us  the  principal  features  and  the  leading 
characters  in  the  original  scene.  We  cast  our  eyes  abroad  on 
the  ocean,  and  we  see  where  the  little  bark,  with  the  interesting 
group  upon  its  deck,  made  its  slow  progress  to  the  shore.  We 
look  around  us,  and  behold  the  hills  and  promontories  where 
the  anxious  eyes  of  our  fathers  first  saw  the  places  of  habitation 
and  of  rest.  We  feel  the  cold  which  benumbed,  and  listen  to 
the  winds  which  pierced  them.  Beneath  us  is  the  Rock,*  on 
which  New  England  received  the  feet  of  the  Pilgrims.  We 
seem  even  to  behold  them,  as  they  struggle  with  the  elements, 
and,  with  toilsome  efforts,  gain  the  shore.  We  listen  to  the 
chiefs  in  council ;  we  see  the  unexampled  exhibition  of  female 
fortitude  and  resignation ;  we  hear  the  whisperings  of  youthful 
impatience,  and  we  see,  what  a  painter  of  our  own  has  also 
represented  by  his  pencil,!  chilled  and  shivering  childhood, 
houseless,  but  for  a  mother's  arms,  couchless,  but  for  a  mother's 
breast,  till  our  own  blood  almost  freezes.  The  mild  dignity  of 
CARVER  and  of  BRADFORD;  the  decisive  and  soldierlike  air  and 
manner  of  STANDISH  ;  the  devout  BREWSTER  ;  the  enterprising 
ALLERTON  ;  J  the  general  firmness  and  thoughtfulness  of  the 
whole  band ;  their  conscious  joy  for  dangers  escaped ;  their  deep 
solicitude  about  dangers  to  come ;  their  trust  in  Heaven ;  their 
high  religious  faith,  full  of  confidence  and  anticipation ;  all  of 
these  seem  to  belong  to  this  place,  and  to  be  present  upon  this 
occasion,  to  fill  us  with  reverence  and  admiration. 

The  settlement  of  New  England  by  the  colony  which  landed 
here  §  on  the  twenty-second  ||  of  December,  sixteen  hundred  and 
twenty,  although  not  the  first  European  establishment  in  what 

*  An  interesting  account  of  the  Rock  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Thacher's  History 
Of  the  Town  of  Plymouth,  pp.  29,  198,  199. 

f  See  Note  A,  at  the  end  of  the  Discourse. 

J  For  notices  of  Carver,  Bradford.  Standish,  Brewster,  and  Allerton,  see 
Young's  Chronicles  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  ;  Morton's  Memorial,  p.  126  ; 
Belknap's  American  Biography,  Vol.  II.  ;  Hutchinson's  History,  Vol.  II.,  App., 

Sp.  456  et  sey. ;  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  ;  Winthrop's 
ouvnal  ;  and  Thacher's  History. 

$  For  the  original  name  of  what  is  now  Plymouth,  see  Lives  of  American 
Governors,  p.  38,  note,  a  work  prepared  with  great  care  by  J.  B.  Moore,  Esq. 

||  The  twenty-first  is  now  acknowledged  to  be  the  true  anniversary.  See  the 
Report  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  on  the  subject. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  9 

now  constitutes  the  United  States,  was  yet  so  peculiar  in  its 
causes  and  character,  and  has  been  followed  and  must  still  be 
followed  by  such  consequences,  as  to  give  it  a  high  claim  to 
lasting  commemoration.  On  these  causes  and  consequences, 
more  than  on  its  immediately  attendant  circumstances,  its  im 
portance,  as  an  historical  event,  depends.  Great  actions  and 
striking  occurrences,  having  excited  a  temporary  admiration, 
eften  pass  away  and  are  forgotten,  because  they  leave  no  lasting 
results,  affecting  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  communities. 
Such  is  frequently  the  fortune  of  the  most  brilliant  military 
achievements.  Of  the  ten  thousand  battles  which  have  been 
fought,  of  all  the  fields  fertilized  with  carnage,  of  the  banners 
which  have  been  bathed  in  blood,  of  the  warriors  who  have 
hoped  that  they  had  risen  from  the  field  of  conquest  to  a  glory 
as  bright  and  as  durable  as  the  stars,  how  few  that  continue  long 
to  interest  mankind !  The  victory  of  yesterday  is  reversed  by 
the  defeat  of  to-day;  the  star  of  military  glory,  rising  like  a 
meteor,  like  a  meteor  has  fallen ;  disgrace  and  disaster  hang  on 
the  heels  of  conquest  and  renown  ;  victor  and  vanquished  pres 
ently  pass  away  to  oblivion,  and  the  world  goes  on  in  its  course, 
with  the  loss  only  of  so  many  lives  and  so  much  treasure. 

But  if  this  be  frequently,  or  generally,  the  fortune  of  military 
achievements,  it  is  not  always  so.  There  are  enterprises,  mili 
tary  as  well  as  civil,  which  sometimes  check  the  current  of 
events,  give  a  new  turn  to  human  affairs,  and  transmit  their 
consequences  through  ages.  We  see  their  importance  in  their 
results,  and  call  them  great,  because  great  things  follow.  There 
have  been  battles  which  have  fixed  the  fate  of  nations.  These 
come  down  to  us  in  history  with  a  solid  and  permanent  interest, 
not  created  by  a  display  of  glittering  armor,  the  rush  of  adverse 
battalions,  the  sinking  and  rising  of  pennons,  the  flight,  the 
pursuit,  and  the  victory;  but  by  then*  effect  in  advancing  or  re 
tarding  human  knowledge,  in  overthrowing  or  establishing  des 
potism,  in  extending  or  destroying  human  happiness.  When 
the  traveller  pauses  on  the  plain  of  Marathon,  what  are  the 
emotions  which  most  strongly  agitate  his  breast  ?  What  is  that 
glorious  recollection,  which  thrills  through  his  frame,  and  suf 
fuses  his  eyes  ?  Not,  I  imagine,  that  Grecian  skill  and  Grecian 
valor  were  here  most  signally  displayed ;  but  that  Greece  her 
self  was  saved.  It  is  because  to  this  spot,  and  to  the  event 


10  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

which  has  rendered  it  immortal,  he  refers  all  the  succeeding 
glories  of  the  republic.  It  is  because,  if  that  day  had  gone 
otherwise,  Greece  had  perished.  It  is  because  he  perceives  that 
her  philosophers  and  orators,  her  poets  and  painters,  her  sculp 
tors  and  architects,  her  governments  and  free  institutions,  point 
backward  to  Marathon,  and  that  their  future  existence  seems  to 
have  been  suspended  on  the  contingency,  whether  the  Persian 
or  the  Grecian  banner  should  wave  victorious  in  the  beams  of 
that  day's  setting  sun.  And,  as  his  imagination  kindles  at  the 
retrospect,  he  is  transported  back  to  the  interesting  moment ;  he 
counts  the  fearful  odds  of  the  contending  hosts ;  his  interest  for 
the  result  overwhelms  him ;  he  trembles,  as  if  it  were  still  uncer 
tain,  and  seems  to  doubt  whether  he  may  consider  Socrates  and 
Plato,  Demosthenes,  Sophocles,  and  Phidias,  as  secure,  yet,  to 
himself  and  to  the  world. 

"  If  we  conquer,"  said  the  Athenian  commander  on  the  ap 
proach  of  that  decisive  day,  "  if  we  conquer,  we  shall  make 
Athens  the  greatest  city  of  Greece."  *  A  prophecy,  how  well 
fulfilled !  "  If  God  prosper  us,"  might  have  been  the  more 
appropriate  language  of  our  fathers,  when  they  landed  upon 
this  Rock,  "if  God  prosper  us,  we  shall  here  begin  a  work 
which  shall  last  for  ages ;  we  shall  plant  here  a  new  society,  in 
the  principles  of  the  fullest  liberty  and  the  purest  religion ;  we 
shall  subdue  this  wilderness  which  is  before  us ;  we  shall  fill  this 
region  of  the  great  continent,  which  stretches  almost  from  pole 
to  pole,  with  civilization  and  Christianity ;  the  temples  of  the 
true  God  shall  rise,  where  now  ascends  the  smoke  of  idolatrous 
sacrifice ;  fields  and  gardens,  the  flowers  of  summer,  and  the  wav 
ing  and  golden  harvest  of  autumn,  shall  spread  over  a  thousand 
hills,  and  stretch  along  a  thousand  valleys,  never  yet,  since  the 
creation,  reclaimed  to  the  use  of  civilized  man.  We  shall  whiten 
this  coast  with  the  canvas  of  a  prosperous  commerce ;  we  shall 
stud  the  long  and  winding  shore  with  a  hundred  cities.  That 
which  we  sow  in  weakness  shall  be  raised  in  strength.  From 
our  sincere,  but  houseless  worship,  there  shall  spring  splendid 
temples  to  record  God's  goodness ;  from  the  simplicity  of  our 
social  union,  there  shall  arise  wise  and  politic  constitutions  of 
government,  full  of  the  liberty  which  we  ourselves  bring  and 

*  Herodot.  VI.  §  109. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  H 

breathe ;  from  our  zeal  for  learning,  institutions  shall  spring 
which  shall  scatter  the  light  of  knowledge  throughout  the  land, 
and,  in  time,  paying  back  where  they  have  borrowed,  shall  con 
tribute  their  part  to  the  great  aggregate  of  human  knowledge ; 
and  our  descendants,  through  all  generations,  shall  look  back  to 
tins  spot,  and  to  this  hour,  with  unabated  affection  and  regard." 

A  brief  remembrance  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the  settle 
ment  of  this  place ;  some  account  of  the  peculiarities  and  char-, 
acteristic  qualities  of  that  settlement,  as  distinguished  from  other 
instances  of  colonization ;  a  short  notice  of  the  progress  of  New 
England  in  the  great  interests  of  society,  during  the  century 
which  is  now  elapsed ;  with  a  few  observations  on  the  principles 
upon  which  society  and  government  are  established  in  this 
country ;  comprise  all  that  can  be  attempted,  and  much  more 
than  can  be  satisfactorily  performed,  on  the  present  occasion. 

Of  the  motives  which  influenced  the  first  settlers  to  a  volun 
tary  exile,  induced  them  to  relinquish  their  native  country,  and 
to  seek  an  asylum  in  this  then  unexplored  wilderness,  the  first 
and  principal,  no  doubt,  were  connected  with  religion.  They 
sought  to  enjoy  a  higher  degree  of  religious  freedom,  and  what 
they  esteemed  a  purer  form  of  religious  worship,  than  was 
allowed  to  their  choice,  or  presented  to  their  imitation,  in  the 
Old  World.  The  love  of  religious  liberty  is  a  stronger  sentiment, 
when  fully  excited,  than  an  attachment  to  civil  or  political  free 
dom.  That  freedom  which  the  conscience  demands,  and  which 
men  feel  bound  by  their  hope  of  salvation  to  contend  for,  can 
hardly  fail  to  be  attained.  Conscience,  in  the  cause  of  religion 
and  the  worship  of  the  Deity,  prepares  the  mind  to  act  and  to 
suffer  beyond  almost  all  other  causes.  It  sometimes  gives  an 
impulse  so  irresistible,  that  no  fetters  of  power  or  of  opinion  can 
withstand  it.  History  instructs  us  that  this  love  of  religious  lib 
erty,  a  compound  sentiment  in  the  breast  of  man,  made  up  of 
the  clearest  sense  of  right  and  the  highest  conviction  of  duty,  is 
able  to  look  the  sternest  despotism  in  the  face,  and,  with  means 
apparently  most  inadequate,  to  shake  principalities  and  powers. 
There  is  a  boldness,  a  spirit  of  daring,  in  religious  reformers, 
not  to  be  measured  by  the  general  rules  which  control  men's 
purposes  and  actions.  If  the  hand  of  power  be  laid  upon  it, 


12  FIRST   SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

this  only  seems  to  augment  its  force  and  its  elasticity,  and  to 
cause  its  action  to  be  more  formidable  and  violent.  Human  in 
vention  has  devised  nothing,  human  power  has  compassed 
nothing,  that  can  forcibly  restrain  it,  when  it  breaks  forth. 
Nothing  can  stop  it,  but  to  give  way  to  it;  nothing  can  check  it, 
but  indulgence.  It  loses  its  power  only  when  it  ha?s  gained  its 
object.  The  principle  of  toleration,  to  which  the  world  has  come 
so  slowly,  is  at  once  the  most  just  and  the  most  wise  of  all 
principles.  Even  when  religious  feeling  takes  a  character  of 
extravagance  and  enthusiasm,  and  seems  to  threaten  the  order 
of  society  and  shake  the  columns  of  the  social  edifice,  its  prin 
cipal  danger  is  in  its  restraint.  If  it  be  allowed  indulgence  and 
expansion,  like  the  elemental  fires,  it  only  agitates,  and  perhaps 
purifies,  the  atmosphere ;  while  its  efforts  to  throw  off  restraint 
would  burst  the  world  asunder. 

It  is  certain,  that,  although  many  of  them  were  republicans 
in  principle,  we  have  no  evidence  that  our  New  England  ances 
tors  would  have  emigrated,  as  they  did,  from  their  own  native 
country,  would  have  become  wanderers  in  Europe,  and  finally 
would  have  undertaken  the  establishment  of  a  colony  here,  mere 
ly  from  their  dislike  of  the  political  systems  of  Europe.  They 
fled  not  so  much  from  the  civil  government,  as  from  the  hierar 
chy,  and  the  laws  which  enforced  conformity  to  the  church  estab 
lishment.  Mr.  Robinson  had  left  England  as  early  as  1608,  on 
account  of  the  persecutions  for  nonconformity,  and  had  retired  to 
Holland.  He  left  England,  from  no  disappointed  ambition  in 
affairs  of  state,  from  no  regrets  at  the  want  of  preferment  in  the 
church,  nor  from  any  motive  of  distinction  or  of  gain.  Uniform 
ity  in  matters  of  religion  was  pressed  with  such  extreme  rigor, 
that  a  voluntary  exile  seemed  the  most  eligible  mode  of  escaping 
from  the  penalties  of  noncompliance.  The  accession  of  Eliza 
beth  had,  it  is  true,  quenched  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  and  put  an 
end  to  the  easy  acquisition  of  the  crown  of  martyrdom.  Her 
long  reign  had  established  the  Reformation,  but  toleration  was 
a  virtue  beyond  her  conception,  and  beyond  the  age.  She  left 
no  example  of  it  to  her  successor;  and  he  was  not  of  a  charac 
ter  which  rendered  it  probable  that  a  sentiment  either  so  wise 
or  so  liberal  would  originate  with  him.  At  the  present  period 
it  seems  incredible,  that  the  learned,  accomplished,  unassum 
ing,  and  inoffensive  Robinson  should  neither  be  tolerated  in  his 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  13 

peaceable  mode  of  worship  in  his  own  country,  nor  suffered 
quietly  to  depart  from  it.  Yet  such  was  the  fact.  He  left  his 
country  by  stealth,  that  he  might  elsewhere  enjoy  those  rights 
which  ought  to  belong  to  men  in  all  countries.  The  departure 
of  the  Pilgrims  for  Holland  is  deeply  interesting,  from  its  cir 
cumstances,  and  also  as  it  marks  the  character  of  the  times, 
independently  of  its  connection  with  names  now  incorporated 
with  the  history  of  empire.  The  embarkation  was  intended  to 
be  made  in  such  a  manner,  that  it  might  escape  the  notice  of 
the  officers  of  government.  Great  pains  had  been  taken  to  se 
cure  boats,  which  should  come  undiscovered  to  the  shore,  and 
receive  the  fugitives;  and  frequent  disappointments  had  been 
experienced  in  this  respect. 

At  length  the  appointed  time  came,  bringing  with  it  unusual  se 
verity  of  cold  and  rain.  An  unfrequented  and  barren  heath,  on  the 
shores  of  Lincolnshire,  was  the  selected  spot,  where  the  feet  of  the 
Pilgrims  were  to  tread,  for  the  last  time,  the  land  of  their  fathers. 
The  vessel  which  was  to  receive  them  did  not  come  until  the 
next  day,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  little  band  was  collected,  and 
men  and  women  and  children  and  baggage  were  crowded  togeth 
er,  in  melancholy  and  distressed  confusion.  The  sea  was  rough, 
and  the  women  and  children  were  already  sick,  from  their  passage 
down  the  river  to  the  place  of  embarkation  on  the  sea.  At  length 
the  wished-for  boat  silently  and  fearfully  approaches  the  shore,  and 
men  and  women  and  children,  shaking  with  fear  and  with  cold, 
as  many  as  the  small  vessel  could  bear,  venture  off  on  a  danger 
ous  sea.  Immediately  the  advance  of  horses  is  heard  from  be 
hind,  armed  men  appear,  and  those  not  yet  embarked  are  seized, 
and  taken  into  custody.  In  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  the  first 
parties  had  been  sent  on  board  without  any  attempt  to  keep 
members  of  the  same  family  together,  and  on  account  of  the 
appearance  of  the  horsemen,  the  boat  never  returned  for  the 
residue.  Those  who  had  got  away,  and  those  who  had  not, 
were  in  equal  distress.  A  storm,  of  great  violence,  and  long 
duration,  arose  at  sea,  which  not  only  protracted  the  voyage 
rendered  distressing  by  the  want  of  all  those  accommodation 
which  the  interruption  of  the  embarkation  had  occasioned,  but 
also  forced  the  vessel  out  of  her  course,  and  menaced  immediate 
shipwreck;  while  those  on  shore,  when  they  were  dismissed 
from  the  custody  of  the  officers  of  justice,  having  no  longer 

VOL.  T.  2 


14  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

homes  or  houses  to  retire  to,  and  their  friends  and  protectors 
being  already  gone,  became  objects  of  necessary  charity,  as  well 
as  of  deep  commiseration. 

As  this  scene  passes  before  us,  we  can  hardly  forbear  asking, 
whether  this  be  a  band  of  malefactors  and  felons  flying  from 
justice.  What  are  their  crimes,  that  they  hide  themselves  in 
darkness  ?  To  what  punishment  are  they  exposed,  that,  to  avoid 
it,  men,  and  women,  and  children,  thus  encounter  the  surf  of 
the  North  Sea,  and  the  terrors  of  a  night  storm  ?  What  induces 
this  armed  pursuit,  and  this  arrest  of  fugitives,  of  all  ages  and 
both  sexes  ?  Truth  does  not  allow  us  to  answer  these  inquiries 
in  a  manner  that  does  credit  to  the  wisdom  or  the  justice  of  the 
times.  This  was  not  the  flight  of  guilt,  but  of  virtue.  It  was 
an  humble  and  peaceable  religion,  flying  from  causeless  oppres 
sion.  It  was  conscience,  attempting  to  escape  from  the  arbitrary 
rule  of  the  Stuarts.  It  was  Robinson  and  Brewster,  leading  off 
their  little  band  from  their  native  soil,  at  first  to  find  shelter  on  the 
shore  of  the  neighboring  continent,  but  ultimately  to  come  hither ; 
and  having  surmounted  all  difficulties  and  braved  a  thousand 
dangers,  to  find  here  a  place  of  refuge  and  of  rest.  Thanks  be 
to  God,  that  this  spot  was  honored  as  the  asylum  of  religious 
liberty !  May  its  standard,  reared  here,  remain  for  ever !  May  it 
rise  up  as  high  as  heaven,  till  its  banner  shall  fan  the  air  of  both 
continents,  and  wave  as  a  glorious  ensign  of  peace  and  security 
to  the  nations ! 

The  peculiar  character,  condition,  and  circumstances  of  the 
colonies  which  introduced  civilization  and  an  English  race  into 
New  England,  afford  a  most  interesting  and  extensive  topic  of 
discussion.  On  these,  much  of  our  subsequent  character  and 
fortune  has  depended.  Their  influence  has  essentially  affected 
our  whole  history,  through  the  two  centuries  which  have  elapsed ; 
and  as  they  have  become  intimately  connected  with  govern 
ment,  laws,  and  property,  as  well  as  with  our  opinions  on  the 
subjects  of  religion  and  civil  liberty,  that  influence  is  likely  to 
continue  to  be  felt  through  the  centuries  which  shall  succeed. 
Emigration  from  one  region  to  another,  and  the  emission  of 
colonies  to  people  countries  more  or  less  distant  from  the  resi 
dence  of  the  parent  stock,  are  common  incidents  in  the  history 
of  mankind ;  but  it  has  not  often,  perhaps  never,  happened,  that 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  15 

the  establishment  of  colonies  should  be  attempted  under  cir 
cumstances,  however  beset  with  present  difficulties  and  dangers, 
yet  so  favorable  to  ultimate  success,  and  so  conducive  to  mag 
nificent  results,  as  those  which  attended  the  first  settlements  on 
this  part  of  the  American  continent.  In  other  instances,  emi 
gration  has  proceeded  from  a  less  exalted  purpose,  in  periods  of 
less  general  intelligence,  or  more  without  plan  and  by  accident ; 
or  under  circumstances,  physical  and  moral,  less  favorable  to  the 
expectation  of  laying  a  foundation  for  great  public  prosperity 
and  future  empire. 

A  great  resemblance  exists,  obviously,  between  all  the  English 
colonies  established  within  the  present  limits  of  the  United 
States ;  but  the  occasion  attracts  our  attention  more  immedi 
ately  to  those  which  took  possession  of  New  England,  and  the 
peculiarities  of  these  furnish  a  strong  contrast  with  most  other 
instances  of  colonization. 

Among  the  ancient  nations,  the  Greeks,  no  doubt,  sent  forth 
from  then*  territories  the  greatest  number  of  colonies.  So  numer 
ous,  indeed,  were  they,  and  so  great  the  extent  of  space  over 
which  they  were  spread,  that  the  parent  country  fondly  and 
naturally  persuaded  herself,  that  by  means  of  them  she  had  laid 
a  sure  foundation  for  the  universal  civilization  of  the  world. 
These  establishments,  from  obvious  causes,  were  most  numerous 
in  places  most  contiguous ;  yet  they  were  found  on  the  coasts 
of  France,  on  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  in  Africa,  and  even, 
as  is  alleged,  on  the  borders  of  India.  These  emigrations  ap 
pear  to  have  been  sometimes  voluntary  and  sometimes  compul 
sory  ;  arising  from  the  spontaneous  enterprise  of  individuals,  or 
the  order  and  regulation  of  government.  It  was  a  common 
opinion  with  ancient  writers,  that  they  were  undertaken  in  relig 
ious  obedience  to  the  commands  of  oracles,  and  it  is  probable 
that  impressions  of  this  sort  might  have  had  more  or  less  influ 
ence  ;  but  it  is  probable,  also,  that  on  these  occasions  the  oracles 
did  not  speak  a  language  dissonant  from  the  views  and  pur 
poses  of  the  state. 

Political  science  among  the  Greeks  seems  never  to  have  ex 
tended  to  the  comprehension  of  a  system,  which  should  be 
adequate  to  the  government  of  a  great  nation  upon  principles  of 
liberty.  They  were  accustomed  only  to  the  contemplation  of 
small  republics,  and  were  led  to  consider  an  augmented  popula- 


16  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

tion  as  incompatible  with  -  free  institutions.  •  The  desire  of  a 
remedy  for  this  supposed  evil,  and  the  wish  to  establish  marts 
for  trade,  led  the  governments  often  to  undertake  the  establish 
ment  of  colonies  as  an  affair  of  state  expediency.  Colonization 
and  commerce,  indeed,  would  naturally  become  objects  of  inter 
est  to  an  ingenious  and  enterprising  people,  inhabiting  a  terri 
tory  closely  circumscribed  in  its  limits,  and  in  no  small  part 
mountainous  and  sterile;  while  the  islands  of  the  adjacent  seas, 
and  the  promontories  and  coasts  of  the  neighboring  continents, 
by  their  mere  proximity,  strongly  solicited  the  excited  spirit  of 
emigration.  Such  was  this  proximity,  in  many  instances,  that 
the  new  settlements  appeared  rather  to  be  the  mere  extension  of 
population  over  contiguous  territory,  than  the  establishment  of 
distant  colonies.  In  proportion  as  they  were  near  to  the  parent 
state,  they  would  be  under  its  authority,  and  partake  of  its  for 
tunes.  The  colony  at  Marseilles  might  perceive  lightly,  or  not 
at  all,  the  sway  of  Phocis ;  while  the  islands  in  the  ^Egean  Sea 
could  hardly  attain  to  independence  of  then*  Athenian  origin 
Many  of  these  establishments  took  place  at  an  early  age ;  and 
if  there  were  defects  in  the  governments  of  the  parent  states, 
the  colonists  did  not  possess  philosophy  or  experience  sufficient 
to  correct  such  evils  in  their  own  institutions,  even  if  they  had 
not  been,  by  other  causes,  deprived  of  the  power.  An  immedi 
ate  necessity,  connected  with  the  support  of  life,  was  the  main 
and  direct  inducement  to  these  undertakings,  and  there  could 
hardly  exist  more  than  the  hope  of  a  successful  imitation  of  in 
stitutions  with  which  they  were  already  acquainted,  and  of  hold 
ing  an  equality  with  their  neighbors  in  the  course  of  improve 
ment.  The  laws  and  customs,  both  political  and  municipal,  as 
well  as  the  religious  worship  of  the  parent  city,  were  transferred 
to  the  colony ;  and  the  parent  city  herself,  with  all  such  of  her 
colonies  as  were  not  too  far"  remote  for  frequent  intercourse  and 
common  sentiments,  would  appear  like  a  family  of  cities,  more 
or  less  dependent,  and  more  or  less  connected.  We  know  how 
imperfect  this  system  was,  as  a  system  of  general  politics,  and 
what  scope  it  gave  to  those  mutual  dissensions  and  conflicts 
which  proved  so  fatal  to  Greece. 

But  it  is  more  pertinent  to  our  present  purpose  to  observe, 
that  nothing  existed  in  the  character  of  Grecian  emigrations,  or 
in  the  spirit  and  intelligence  of  the  emigrants,  likely  to  give  a 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  17 

new  and  important  direction  to  human  affairs,  or  a  new  impulse 
to  the  human  mind.  Their  motives  were  not  high  enough,  their 
views  were  not  sufficiently  large  and  prospective.  They  went 
not  forth,  like  our  ancestors,  to  erect  systems  of  more  perfect 
civil  liberty,  or  to  enjoy  a  higher  degree  of  religious  freedom. 
Above  all,  there  was  nothing  in  the  religion  and  learning  of  the 
age,  that  could  either  inspire  high  purposes,  or  give  the  ability 
to  execute  them.  Whatever  restraints  on  civil  liberty,  or  what 
ever  abuses  in  religious  worship,  existed  at  the  time  of  our 
fathers'  emigration,  yet  even  then  all  was  light  in  the  moral  and 
mental  world,  in  comparison  with  its  condition  in  most  periods 
of  the  ancient  states.  The  settlement  of  a  new  continent,  in 
an  age  of  progressive  knowledge  and  improvement,  could  not 
but  do  more  than  merely  enlarge  the  natural  boundaries  of  the 
habitable  world.  It  could  not  but  do  much  more  even  than 
extend  commerce  and  increase  wealth  among  the  human  race. 
We  see  how  this  event  has  acted,  how  it  must  have  acted,  and 
wonder  only  why  it  did  not  act  sooner,  in  the  production  of 
moral  effects,  on  the  state  of  human  knowledge,  the  general 
tone  of  human  sentiments,  and  the  prospects  of  human  happi 
ness.  It  gave  to  civilized  man  not  only  a  new  continent  to  be 
inhabited  and  cultivated,  and  new  seas  to  be  explored ;  but  it 
gave  him  also  a  new  range  for  his  thoughts,  new  objects  for 
curiosity,  and  new  excitements  to  knowledge  and  improvement 
Roman  colonization  resembled,  far  less  than  that  of  the  Greeks, 
the  original  settlements  of  this  country.  Power  and  dominion 
were  the  objects  of  Rome,  even  in  her  colonial  establishments, 
Her  whole  exterior  aspect  was  for  centuries  hostile  and  terrific 
She  grasped  at  dominion,  from  India  to  Britain,  and  her  meas 
ures  of  colonization  partook  of  the  character  of  her  general  sys 
tem.  Her  policy  was  military,  because  her  objects  were  power 
ascendency,  and  subjugation.  Detachments  of  emigrants  from 
Rome  incorporated  themselves  with,  and  governed,  the  original 
inhabitants  of  conquered  countries.  She  sent  citizens  where 
she  had  first  sent  soldiers ;  her  law  followed  her  sword.  Her 
colonies  were  a  sort  of  military  establishment;  so  many  ad 
vanced  posts  in  the  career  of  her  dominion.  A  governor  from 
Rome  ruled  the  new  colony  with  absolute  sway,  and  often  with 
unbounded  rapacity.  In  Sicily,  in  Gaul,  in  Spain,  and  in  Asia, 
the  power  of  Rome  prevailed,  not  nominally  only,  but  really  and 
2* 


18  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

effectually.  Those  who  immediately  exercised  it  were  Roman ; 
the  tone  and  tendency  of  its  administration,  Roman.  Rome 
herself  continued  to  be  the  heart  and  centre  of  the  great  sys 
tem  which  she  had  established.  Extortion  and  rapacity,  finding 
a  wide  and  often  rich  field  of  action  in  the  provinces,  looked 
nevertheless  to  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  as  the  scene  in  which 
their  ill-gotten  treasures  should  be  displayed ;  or,  if  a  spirit  oi 
more  honest  acquisition  prevailed,  the  object,  nevertheless,  was 
ultimate  enjoyment  in  Rome  itself.  If  our  own  history  and  our 
own  times  did  not  sufficiently  expose  the  inherent  and  incurable 
evils  of  provincial  government,  we  might  see  them  portrayed,  to 
our  amazement,  in  the  desolated  and  ruined  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire.  We  might  hear  them,  in  a  voice  that  terrifies 
us,  in  those  strains  of  complaint  and  accusation,  which  the  ad 
vocates  of  the  provinces  poured  forth  in  the  Roman  Forum  :  — 
"  Quas  res  luxuries  in  flagitiis,  crudelitas  in  suppliciis,  avaritia 
in  rapinis,  superbia  in  contumeliis,  efficere  potuisset,  eas  omn.es 
sese  pertulisse." 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  Roman  Provinces  partook  of  the 
fortunes,  as  well  as  of  the  sentiments  and  general  character,  of  the 
seat  of  empire.     They  h'ved  together  with  her,  they  flourished 
with  her,  and  fell  with  her.    The  branches  were  lopped  away  even 
before  the  vast  and  venerable  trunk  itself  fell  prostrate  to  the  earth. 
Nothing  had  proceeded  from  her  which  could  support  itself,  and 
bear  up  the  name  of  its  origin,  when  her  own  sustaining  arm 
should  be  enfeebled  or  withdrawn.     It  was  not  given  to  Rome 
to  see,  either  at  her  zenith  or  in  her  decline,  a  child  of  her  own. 
distant,  indeed,  and  independent  of  her  control,  yet  speaking  hei 
language  and  inheriting  her  blood,  springing  forward  to  a  com 
petition  with  her  own  power,  and  a  comparison  with  her  own 
great  renown.     She  saw  not  a  vast  region  of  the  earth  peopled 
from  her  stock,  full  of  states  and  political  communities,  improv 
ing  upon  the  models  of  her  institutions,  and  breathing  in  fullei 
measure  the  spirit  which  she  had  breathed  in  the  best  periods  oi 
her  existence ;  enjoying  and  extending  her  arts  and  her  litera 
ture  ;  rising  rapidly  from  political  childhood  to  manly  strength 
and  independence ;  her  offspring,  yet  now  her  equal ;  uncon 
nected  with  the  causes  which  might  affect  the  duration  of  hei 
own  power  and  greatness ;  of  common  origin,  but  not  linked  tc 
a  common  fate ;   giving  ample  pledge,  that  her  name  should 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  >19 

not  be  forgotten,  that  her  language  should  not  cease  to  be  used 
among  men ;  that  whatsoever  she  had  done  for  human  knowl 
edge  and  human  happiness  should  be  treasured  up  and  pre 
served;  that  the  record  of  her  existence  and  her  achievements 
should  not  be  obscured,  although,  in  the  inscrutable  purposes  of 
Providence,  it  might  be  her  destiny  to  fall  from  opulence  and 
splendor;  although  the  time  might  come,  when  darkness  should 
settle  on  all  her  hills ;  when  foreign  or  domestic  violence  should 
overturn  her  altars  and  her  temples ;  when  ignorance  and  despo 
tism  should  fill  the  places  where  Laws,  and  Arts,  and  Liberty 
had  flourished ;  when  the  feet  of  barbarism  should  trample  on 
the  tombs  of  her  consuls,  and  the  walls  of  her  senate-house  and 
forum  echo  only  to  the  voice  of  savage  triumph.  She  saw  not 
this  glorious  vision,  to  inspire  and  fortify  her  against  the  possible 
decay  or  downfall  of  her  power.  Happy  are  they  who  in  our 
day  may  behold  it,  if  they  shall  contemplate  it  with  the  senti 
ments  which  it  ought  to  inspire ! 

The  New  England  Colonies  differ  quite  as  widely  from  the 
Asiatic  establishments  of  the  modern  European  nations,  as  from 
the  models  of  the  ancient  states.  The  sole  object  of  those  es 
tablishments  was  originally  trade ;  although  we  have  seen,  in 
one  of  them,  the  anomaly  of  a  mere  trading  company  attaining 
a  political  character,  disbursing  revenues,  and  maintaining  armies 
and  fortresses,  until  it  has  extended  its  control  over  seventy  mil 
lions  of  people.  Differing  from  these,  and  still  more  from  the 
New  England  and  North  American  Colonies,  are  the  European 
settlements  in  the  West  India  Islands.  It  is  not  strange,  that, 
when  men's  minds  were  turned  to  the  settlement  of  America, 
different  objects  should  be  proposed  by  those  who  emigrated  to 
the  different  regions  of  so  vast  a  country.  Climate,  soil,  and 
condition  were  not  all  equally  favorable  to  all  pursuits.  In  the 
West  Indies,  the  purpose  of  those  who  went  thither  was  to  en 
gage  in  that  species  of  agriculture,  suited  to  the  soil  and  climate, 
which  seems  to  bear  more  resemblance  to  commerce,  than  to 
the  hard  and  plain  tillage  of  New  England.  The  great  staples 
of  these  countries,  being  partly  an  agricultural  and  partly  a  manu 
factured  product,  and  not  being  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  become 
the  object  of  calculation,  with  respect  to  a  profitable  investment 
of  capital,  Hive  any  other  enterprise  of  trade  or  manufacture. 
The  more  especially,  as,  requiring,  by  necessity  or  habit,  slave 


20  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

labor  for  their  production,  the  capital  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  this  production  is  very  considerable.  The  West  Indies 
are  resorted  to,  therefore,  rather  for  the  investment  of  capital, 
than  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  life  by  personal  labor.  Such 
as  possess  a  considerable  amount  of  capital,  or  such  as  choose 
to  adventure  in  commercial  speculations  without  capital,  can 
alone  be  fitted  to  be  emigrants  to  the  islands.  The  agriculture 
of  these  regions,  as  before  observed,  is  a  sort  of  commerce ;  and 
it  is  a  species  of  employment  in  which  labor  seems  to  form  an 
inconsiderable  ingredient  in  the  productive  causes,  since  the 
portion  of  white  labor  is  exceedingly  small,  and  slave  labor  is 
rather  more  like  profit  on  stock  or  capital,  than  labor  properly  so 
called.  The  individual  who  undertakes  an  establishment  of 
this  kind  takes  into  the  account  the  cost  of  the  necessary  num 
ber  of  slaves,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  calculates  the  cost  of 
the  land.  The  uncertainty,  too,  of  this  species  of  employ 
ment,  affords  another  ground  of  resemblance  to  commerce. 
Although  gainful  on  the  whole,  and  in  a  series  of  years,  it  is 
often  very  disastrous  for  a  single  year,  and,  as  the  capital  is  not 
readily  invested  in  other  pursuits,  bad  crops  or  bad  markets 
not  only  affect  the  profits,  but  the  capital  itself.  Hence  the  sud 
den  depressions  which  take  place  in  the  value  of  such  estates. 

But  the  great  and  leading  observation,  relative  to  these  estab 
lishments,  remains  to  be  made.  It  is,  that  the  owners  of  the 
soil  and  of  the  capital  seldom  consider  themselves  at  home  in  the 
colony.  A  very  great  portion  of  the  soil  itself  is  usually  owned 
in  the  mother  country ;  a  still  greater  is  mortgaged  for  capital 
obtained  there ;  and,  in  general,  those  who  are  to  derive  an  in 
terest  from  the  products  look  to  the  parent  country  as  the  place 
for  enjoyment  of  their  wealth.  The  population  is  therefore  con 
stantly  fluctuating.  Nobody  comes  but  to  return.  A  constant 
succession  of  owners,  agents,  and  factors  takes  place.  What 
soever  the  soil,  forced  by  the  unmitigated  toil  of  slavery,  can 
yield,  is  sent  home  to  defray  rents,  and  interest,  and  agencies, 
or  to  give  the  means  of  living  in  a  better  society.  In  such  a 
state,  it  is  evident  that  no  spirit  of  permanent  improvement  is 
likely  to  spring  up.  Profits  will  not  be  invested  with  a  distant 
view  of  benefiting  posterity.  Roads  and  canals  will  hardly  be 
built ;  schools  will  not  be  founded ;  colleges  will  not  be  endowed. 
There  will  be  few  fixtures  in  society ;  no  principles  of  utility  or 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  21 

of  elegance,  planted  now,  with  the  hope  of  being  developed  and 
expanded  hereafter.  Profit,  immediate  profit,  must  be  the  prin 
cipal  active  spring  in  the  social  system.  There  may  be  many 
particular  exceptions  to  these  general  remarks,  but  the  outline 
of  the  whole  is  such  as  is  here  drawn. 

Another  most  important  consequence  of  such  a  state  of  things 
is,  that  no  idea  of  independence  of  the  parent  country  is  likely 
to  arise ;  unless,  indeed,  it  should  spring  up  in  a  form  that  would 
threaten  universal  desolation.  The  inhabitants  have  no  strong 
attachment  to  the  place  which  they  inhabit.  The  hope  of  a 
great  portion  of  them  is  to  leave  it ;  and  their  great  desire,  to 
leave  it  soon.  However  useful  they  may  be  to  the  parent  state, 
how  much  soever  they  may  add  to  the  conveniences  and  luxuries 
of  life,  these  colonies  are  not  favored  spots  for  the  expansion  of 
the  human  mind,  for  the  progress  of  permanent  improvement, 
or  for  sowing  the  seeds  of  future  independent  empire. 

Different,  indeed,  most  widely  different,  from  all  these  instances 
of  emigration  and  plantation,  were  the  condition,  the  purposes, 
and  the  prospects  of  our  fathers,  when  they  established  their 
infant  colony  upon  this  spot.  They  came  hither  to  a  land  from 
which  they  were  never  to  return.  Hither  they  had  brought,  and 
here  they  were  to  fix,  their  hopes,  their  attachments,  and  their 
objects  in  life.  Some  natural  tears  they  shed,  as  they  left  the 
pleasant  abodes  of  their  fathers,  and  some  emotions  they  sup 
pressed,  when  the  white  cliffs  of  their  native  country,  now  seen  for 
the  last  time,  grew  dim  to  their  sight.  They  were  acting,  how 
ever,  upon  a  resolution  not  to  be  daunted.  With  whatever  sti 
fled  regrets,  with  whatever  occasional  hesitation,  with  whatever 
appalling  apprehensions,  which  might  sometimes  arise  with  force 
to  shake  the  firmest  purpose,  they  had  yet  committed  themselves 
to  Heaven  and  the  elements ;  and  a  thousand  leagues  of  water 
soon  interposed  to  separate  them  for  ever  from  the  region  which 
gave  them  birth.  A  new  existence  awaited  them  here;  and 
when  they  saw  these  shores,  rough,  cold,  barbarous,  and  barren, 
as  then  they  were,  they  beheld  their  country.  That  mixed  and 
strong  feeling,  which  we  call  love  of  country,  and  which  is,  in 
general,  never  extinguished  in  the  heart  of  man,  grasped  and 
embraced  its  proper  object  here.  Whatever  constitutes  country, 
except  the  earth  and  the  sun,  all  the  moral  causes  of  affection  and 
attachment  which  operate  upon  the  heart,  they  had  brought  with 


22  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

them  to  their  new  abode.  Here  were  now  their  families  and 
friends,  their  homes,  and  their  property.  Before  they  reached 
the  shore,  they  had  established  the  elements  of  a  social  system,* 
and  at  a  much  earlier  period  had  settled  their  forms  of  religious 
worship.  At  the  moment  of  their  landing,  therefore,  they  pos 
sessed  institutions  of  government,  and  institutions  of  religion : 
and  friends  and  families,'  and  social  and  religious  institutions, 
framed  by  consent,  founded  on  choice  and  preference,  how  nearly 
do  these  fill  up  our  whole  idea  of  country !  The  morning  that 
beamed  on  the  first  night  of  their  repose  saw  the  Pilgrims  al 
ready  at  home  in  their  country.  There  were  political  institutions, 
and  civil  liberty,  and  religious  worship.  Poetry  has  fancied 
nothing,  in  the  wanderings  of  heroes,  so  distinct  and  charac 
teristic.  Here  was  man,  indeed,  unprotected,  and  unprovided 
for,  on  the  shore  of  a  rude  and  fearful  wilderness ;  but  it  was 
politic,  intelligent,  and  educated  man.  Every  thing  was  civilized 
but  the  physical  world.  Institutions,  containing  in  substance  all 
that  ages  had  done  for  human  government,  were  organized  in  a 
forest.  Cultivated  mind  was  to  act  on  uncultivated  nature ; 
and,  more  than  all,  a  government  and  a  country  were  to  com 
mence,  with  the  very  first  foundations  laid  under  the  divine  light 
of  the  Christian  religion.  Happy  auspices  of  a  happy  futurity ! 
Who  would  wish  that  his  country's  existence  had  otherwise 
begun?  Who  would  desire  the  power  of  going  back  to  the 
ages  of  fable  ?  Who  would  wish  for  an  origin  obscured  in  the 
darkness  of  antiquity  ?  Who  would  wish  for  other  emblazoning 
of  his  country's  heraldry,  or  other  ornaments  of  her  genealogy, 
than  to  be  able  to  say,  that  her  first  existence  was  with  intelli 
gence,  her  first  breath  the  inspiration  of  liberty,  her  first  prin 
ciple  the  truth  of  divine  religion  ? 

Local  attachments  and  sympathies  would  ere  long  spring  up 
in  the  breasts  of  our  ancestors,  endearing  to  them  the  place  of 
their  refuge.  Whatever  natural  objects  are  associated  with  in 
teresting  scenes  and  high  efforts  obtain  a  hold  on  human  feeling, 
and  demand  from  the  heart  a  sort  of  recognition  and  regard, 
This  Rock  soon  became  hallowed  in  the  esteem  of  the  Pilgrims,! 

*  For  the  compact  to  which  reference  is  made  in  the  text,  signed  on  hoard 
the  Mayflower,  see  Hutchinson's  History,  Vol.  II.,  Appendix,  No.  I.     For  an  elo 
quent  description  of  the  manner  in  which  the  first  Christian  Sabbath  was  passed 
on  board  the  Mayflower,  at  Plymouth,  see  Barnes's  Discourse  at  Worcester. 

*  The  names  of  the  passengers  in  the  Mayflower,  with  some  account  of  them. 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  23 

and  these  hills  grateful  to  their  sight.  Neither  they  nor  their 
children  were  again  to  till  the  soil  of  England,  nor  again  to 
traverse  the  seas  which  surround  her.*  But  here  was  a  new 
sea,  now  open  to  their  enterprise,  and  a  new  soil,  which  had  not 
failed  to  respond  gratefully  to  their  laborious  industry,  and  which 
was  already  assuming  a  robe  of  verdure.  Hardly  had  they  pro 
vided  shelter  for  the  living,  ere  they  were  summoned  to  erect 
sepulchres  for  the  dead.  The  ground  had  become  sacred,  by 
inclosing  the  remains  of  some  of  their  companions  and  connec 
tions.  A  parent,  a  child,  a  husband,  or  a  wife,  had  gone  the  way 
of  all  flesh,  and  mingled  with  the  dust  of  New  England.  We 
naturally  look  with  strong  emotions  to  the  spot,  though  it  be 
a  wilderness,  where  the  ashes  of  those  we  have  loved  repose. 
Where  the  heart  has  laid  down  what  it  loved  most,  there  it 
is  desirous  of  laying  itself  down.  No  sculptured  marble,  no 
enduring  monument,  no  honorable  inscription,  no  ever-burn 
ing  taper  that  w^ould  drive  away  the  darkness  of  the  tomb, 
can  soften  our  sense  of  the  reality  of  death,  and  hallow  to  our 
feelings  the  ground  which  is  to  cover  us,  like  the  consciousness 
that  we  shall  sleep,  dust  to  dust,  with  the  objects  of  our  affec 
tions. 

In  a  short  time  other  causes  sprung  up  to  bind  the  Pilgrims 
with  new  cords  to  their  chosen  land.  Children  were  born,  and 
the  hopes  of  future  generations  arose,  in  the  spot  of  then*  new 
habitation.  The  second  generation  found  this  the  land  of  their 
nativity,  and  saw  that  they  were  bound  to  its  fortunes.  They 
beheld  their  fathers'  graves  around  them,  and  while  they  read 
the  memorials  of  their  toils  and  labors,  they  rejoiced  in  the  in 
heritance  which  they  found  bequeathed  to  them. 

Under  the  influence  of  these  causes,  it  was  to  be  expected, 
that  an  interest  and  a  feeling  should  arise  here,  entirely  different 
from  the  interest  and  feeling  of  mere  Englishmen ;  arid  all  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  Colonies  proves  this  to  have  actually 
and  gradually  taken  place.  With  a  general  acknowledgment 


may  be  found  in  the  New  England  Genealogical  Register,  Vol.  I.  p.  47,  and  a 
narration  of  some  of  the  incidents  of  the  voyage,  Vol.  II.  p.  186.  For  an  ac 
count  of  Mrs.  White,  the  mother  of  the  first  child  born  in  New  England,  see 
Baylies's  History  of  Plymouth,  Vol.  II.  p.  18,  and  for  a  notice  of  her  son  Pere 
grine,  see  Moore's  Lives  of  American  Governors,  Vol.  I.  p.  31,  note. 

*  See  the  admirable  letter  written  on  board  the  Arbella,  in  Hutchinson's  His 
tory,  Vol.  I.,  Appendix,  No.  I. 


24  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  the  supremacy  of  the  British  crown,  there  was,  from  the  first, 
a  repugnance  to  an  entire  submission  to  the  control  of  British 
legislation.  The  Colonies  stood  upon  their  charters,  which,  as 
they  contended,  exempted  them  from  the  ordinary  power  of  the 
British  Parliament,  and  authorized  them  to  conduct  their  own 
concerns  by  their  own  counsels.  They  utterly  resisted  the  notion 
that  they  were  to  be  ruled  by  the  mere  authority  of  the  govern 
ment  at  home,  and  would  not  endure  even  that  their  own  charter 
governments  should  be  established  on  the  other  side  of  the  At 
lantic.  It  was  not  a  controlling  or  protecting  board  in  England, 
but  a  government  of  their  own,  and  existing  immediately  within 
their  limits,  which  could  satisfy  their  wishes.  It  was  easy  to 
foresee,  what  we  know  also  to  have  happened,  that  the  first 
great  cause  of  collision  and  jealousy  would  be,  under  the  notion 
of  political  economy  then  and  still  prevalent  in  Europe,  an  at 
tempt  on  the  part  of  the  mother  country  to  monopolize  the  trade 
of  the  Colonies.  Whoever  has  looked  deeply  into  the  causes 
which  produced  our  Revolution  has  found,  if  I  mistake  not,  the 
original  principle  far  back  in  this  claim,  on  the  part  of  England, 
to  monopolize  our  trade,  and  a  continued  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  Colonies  to  resist  or  evade  that  monopoly ;  if,  indeed,  it  be 
not  still  more  just  and  philosophical  to  go  farther  back,  and  to 
consider  it  decided,  that  an  independent  government  must  arise 
here,  the  moment  it  was  ascertained  that  an  English  colony, 
such  as  landed  in  this  place,  could  sustain  itself  against  the 
dangers  which  surrounded  it,  and,  with  other  similar  establish 
ments,  overspread  the  land  with  an  English  population.  Acci 
dental  causes  retarded  at  times,  and  at  times  accelerated,  the 
progress  of  the  controversy.  The  Colonies  wanted  strength,  and 
time  gave  it  to  them.  They  required  measures  of  strong  and 
palpable  injustice,  on  the  part  of  the  mother  country,  to  justify 
resistance ;  the  early  part  of  the  late  king's  reign  furnished  them. 
They  needed  spirits  of  high  order,  of  great  daring,  of  long  fore 
sight,  and  of  commanding  power,  to  seize  the  favoring  occasion 
to  strike  a  blow,  which  should  sever,  for  all  time,  the  tie  of  colo 
nial  dependence ;  and  these  spirits  were  found,  in  all  the  extent 
which  that  or  any  crisis  could  demand,  in  Otis,  Adams,  Hancock, 
and  the  other  immediate  authors  of  our  independence. 

Still,  it  is  true  that,  for  a  century,  causes  had  been  in  operation 
tending  to  prepare  things  for  this  great  result.     In  the  year 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  25 

1660  the  English  Act  of  Navigation  was  passed ;  the  first  and 
grand  object  of  which  seems  to  have  been,  to  secure  to  England 
the  whole  trade  with  her  plantations.*  It  was  provided  by  that 
act,  that  none  but  English  ships  should  transport  American 
produce  over  the  ocean,  and  that  the  principal  articles  of  that 
produce  should  be  allowed  to  be  sold  only  in  the  markets  of 
the  mother  country.  Three  years  afterwards  another  law  was 
passed,  which  enacted,  that  such  commodities  as  the  Colonies 
might  wish  to  purchase  should  be  bought  only  in  the  markets 
of  the  mother  country.  Severe  rules  were  prescribed  to  enforce 
the  provisions  of  these  laws,  and  heavy  penalties  imposed  on  all 
who  should  violate  them.  In  the  subsequent  years  of  the  same 
reign,  other  statutes  were  enacted  to  reenforce  these  statutes,  and 
other  rules  prescribed  to  secure  a  compliance  with  these  rules. 
In  this  manner  was  the  trade  to  and  from  the  Colonies  restricted, 
almost  to  the  exclusive  advantage  of  the  parent  country.  But 
laws,  which  rendered  the  interest  of  a  whole  people  subordinate 
to  that  of  another  people,  were  not  likely  to  execute  themselves ; 
nor  was  it  easy  to  find  many  on  the  spot,  who  could  be  depended 
upon  for  carrying  them  into  execution.  In  fact,  these  laws  were 
more  or  less  evaded  or  resisted,  in  all  the  Colonies.  To  enforce 
them  was  the  constant  endeavor  of  the  government  at  home ;  to 
prevent  or  elude  their  operation,  the  perpetual  object  here.  "  The 
laws  of  navigation,"  says  a  living  British  writer,  "were  nowhere 
so  openly  disobeyed  and  contemned  as  in  New  England."  "  The 
people  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  he  adds,  "were  from  the  first 
disposed  to  act  as  if  independent  of  the  mother  country,  and 
having  a  governor  and  magistrates  of  their  own  choice,  it  was 
difficult  to  enforce  any  regulation  which  came  from  the  English 
Parliament,  adverse  to  their  interests."  To  provide  more  ef 
fectually  for  the  execution  of  these  laws,  we  know  that  courts 
of  admiralty  were  afterwards  established  by  the  crown,  with 
power  to  try  revenue  causes,  as  questions  of  admiralty,  upon  the 
construction  given  by  the  crown  lawyers  to  an  act  of  Parlia 
ment  ;  a  great  departure  from  the  ordinary  principles  of  Eng 
lish  jurisprudence,  but  which  has  been  maintained,  nevertheless, 

*  In  reference  to  the  British  policy  respecting  Colonial  manufactures,  see  Rep 
resentations  of  the  Board  of  Trade  to  the  House  of  Lords,  23d  Jan.,  1734 ;  also, 
8th  June,  1749.  For  an  able  vindication  of  the  British  Colonial  policy,  see  "  Po 
litical  Essays  concerning  the  Present  State  of  the  British  Empire."  London,  1772 

VOL.    I.  3 


26  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

by  the  force  of  habit  and  precedent,  and  is  adopted  in  our  own 
existing  systems  of  government. 

"There  lie,"  says  another  English  writer,  whose  connection 
with  the  Board  of  Trade  has  enabled  him  to  ascertain  many 
facts  connected  with  Colonial  history,  "  There  lie  among  the 
documents  in  the  board  of  trade  and  state-paper  office,  the  most 
satisfactory  proofs,  from  the  epoch  of  the  English  Revolution  in 
1688,  throughout  every  reign,  and  during  every  administration, 
of  the  settled  purpose  of  the  Colonies  to  acquire  direct  indepen 
dence  and  positive  sovereignty."  Perhaps  this  may  be  stated 
somewhat  too  strongly ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied,  that,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  establishments  here,  and  from  the  general  char 
acter  of  the  measures  respecting  their  concerns  early  adopted 
and  steadily  pursued  by  the  English  government,  a  division  of 
the  empire  was  the  natural  and  necessary  result  to  which  every 
thing  tended.* 

I  have  dwelt  on  this  topic,  because  it  seems  to  me,  that  the 
peculiar  original  character  of  the  New  England  Colonies,  and 
certain  causes  coeval  with  their  existence,  have  had  a  strong  and 
decided  influence  on  all  their  subsequent  history,  and  especially 
on  the  great  event  of  the  Revolution.  Whoever  would  write 
our  history,  and  would  understand  and  explain  early  transac 
tions,  should  comprehend  the  nature  and  force  of  the  feeling 
which  I  have  endeavored  to  describe.  As  a  son,  leaving  the 
house  of  his  father  for  his  own,  finds,  by  the  order  of  nature,  and 
the  very  law  of  his  being,  nearer  and  dearer  objects  around 
which  his  affections  circle,  while  his  attachment  to  the  parental 
roof  becomes  moderated,  by  degrees,  to  a  composed  regard  and 
an  affectionate  remembrance;  so  our  ancestors,  leaving  their 
native  land,  not  without  some  violence  to  the  feelings  of  nature 
and  affection,  yet,  in  time,  found  here  a  new  circle  of  engage 
ments,  interests,  and  affections ;  a  feeling,  which  more  and  more 
encroached  upon  the  old,  till  an  undivided  sentiment,  that  this  was 
their  country,  occupied  the  heart;  and  patriotism,  shutting  out 
from  its  embraces  the  parent  realm,  became  local  to  America. 

Some  retrospect  of  the  century  which   has  now  elapsed  is 

*  Many  interesting  papers,  illustrating  the  early  history  of  the  Colony,  may  be 
found  in  Hutchinson's  "  Collection  of  Original  Papers  relating  to  the  History  of 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay." 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  27 

among  the  duties  of  the  occasion.  It  must,  however,  necessarily 
be  imperfect,  to  be  compressed  within  the  limits  of  a  single  dis 
course.  I  shah1  content  myself,  therefore,  with  taking  notice  of 
a  few  of  the  leading  and  most  important  occurrences  which  have 
distinguished  the  period. 

When  the  first  century  closed,  the  progress  of  the  country 
appeared  to  have  been  considerable;  notwithstanding  that,  in 
comparison  with  its  subsequent  advancement,  it  now  seems 
otherwise.  A  broad  and  lasting  foundation  had  been  laid ;  ex 
cellent  institutions  had  been  established ;  many  of  the  prejudices 
of  former  times  had  been  removed ;  a  more  liberal  and  catholic 
spirit  on  subjects  of  religious  concern  had  begun  to  extend  itself, 
and  many  things  conspired  to  give  promise  of  increasing  future 
prosperity.  Great  men  had  arisen  in  public  life,  and  the  liberal 
professions.  The  Mathers,  father  and  son,  were  then  sinking  low 
in  the  western  horizon ;  Leverett,  the  learned,  the  accomplished, 
the  excellent  Leverett,  was  about  to  withdraw  his  brilliant  and 
useful  light  In  Pemberton  great  hopes  had  been  suddenly  ex 
tinguished,  but  Prince  and  Colman  were  in  our  sky ;  and  along 
the  east  had  begun  to  flash  the  crepuscular  light  of  a  great 
luminary  which  was  about  to  appear,  and  which  was  to  stamp 
the  age  with  his  own  name,  as  the  age  of  Franklin. 

The  bloody  Indian  wars,  which  harassed  the  people  for  a 
part  of  the  first  century ;  the  restrictions  on  the  trade,  of  the 
Colonies,  added  to  the  discouragements  inherently  belonging 
to  all  forms  of  colonial  government;  the  distance  from  Eu 
rope,  and  the  small  hope  of  immediate  profit  to  adventurers,  arc 
among  the  causes  which  had  contributed  to  retard  the  progress 
of  population.  Perhaps  it  may  be  added,  also,  that  during  the 
period  of  the  civil  wars  in  England,  and  the  reign  of  Cromwell, 
many  persons,  whose  religious  opinions  and  religious  tempei 
might,  under  other  circumstances,  have  induced  them  to  join 
the  New  England  colonists,  found  reasons  to  remain  in  Eng 
land  ;  either  on  account  of  active  occupation  in  the  scenes 
which  were  passing,  or  of  an  anticipation  of  the  enjoyment,  in 
their  own  country,  of  a  form  of  government,  civil  and  religious, 
accommodated  to  their  views  and  principles.  The  violent 
measures,  too,  pursued  against  the  Colonies  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second,  the  mockery  of  a  trial,  and  the  forfeiture 
of  the  charters,  were  serious  evils.  And  during  the  open  vio* 


28  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 

lences  of  the  short  reign  of  James  the  Second,  and  the  tyranny 
of  Andros,  as  the  venerable  historian  of  Connecticut  observes, 
"  All  the  motives  to  great  actions,  to  industry,  economy,  enter 
prise,  wealth,  and  population,  were  in  a  manner  annihilated.  A 
general  inactivity  and  languishment  pervaded  the  public  body. 
Liberty,  property,  and  every  thing  which  ought  to  be  dear  to 
men,  every  day  grew  more  and  more  insecure." 

With  the  Revolution  in  England,  a  better  prospect  had 
opened  on  this  country,  as  well  as  on  that.  The  joy  had  been 
as  great  at  that  event,  and  far  more  universal,  in  New  than  in 
Old  England.  A  new  charter  had  been  granted  to  Massachu 
setts,  which,  although  it  did  not  confirm  to  her  inhabitants  all 
their  former  privileges,  yet  relieved  them  from  great  evils  and 
embarrassments,  and  promised  future  security.  More  than  all, 
perhaps,  the  Revolution  in  England  had  done  good  to  the  gen 
eral  cause  of  liberty  and  justice.  A  blow  had  been  struck  in 
favor  of  the  rights  and  liberties,  not  of  England  alone,  but  of 
descendants  and  kinsmen  of  England  all  over  the  world.  Great 
political  truths  had  been  established.  The  champions  of  liberty 
had  been  successful  in  a  fearful  and  perilous  conflict.  Somers, 
and  Cavendish,  and  Jekyl,  and  Howard,  had  triumphed  in  one 
of  the  most  noble  causes  ever  undertaken  by  men.  A  revolu 
tion  had  been  made  upon  principle.  A  monarch  had  been  de 
throned  for  violating  the  original  compact  between  king  and 
people.  The  rights  of  the  people  to  partake  in  the  government, 
and  to  limit  the  monarch  by  fundamental  rules  of  government, 
had  been  maintained ;  and  however  unjust  the  government  of 
England  might  afterwards  be  towards  other  governments  or 
towards  her  colonies,  she  had  ceased  to  be  governed  herself  by 
the  arbitrary  maxims  of  the  Stuarts. 

New  England  had  submitted  to  the  violence  of  James  the 
Second  not  longer  than  Old  England.  Not  only  was  it  reserved 
to  Massachusetts,  that  on  her  soil  should  be  acted  the  first  ?cene 
of  that  great  revolutionary  drama,  which  was  to  take  place  near 
a  century  afterwards,  but  the  English  Revolution  itself,  as  far 
as  the  Colonies  were  concerned,  commenced  in  Boston.  The 
seizure  and  imprisonment  of  Andros,  in  April,  1689,  were  acts 
of  direct  and  forcible  resistance  to  the  authority  of  James  the 
Second.  The  pulse  of  liberty  beat  as  high  in  the  extremities 
as  at  the  heart.  The  vigorous  feeling  of  the  Colony  burst  out 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  29 

before  it  was  known  how  the  parent  country  would  finally  con 
duct  herself.  The  king's  representative.  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  castle  at  Boston,  before  it  was  or  could  be 
known  that  the  king  himself  had  ceased  to  exercise  his  full  do 
minion  on  the  English  throne. 

Before  it  was  known  here  whether  the  invasion  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  would  or  could  prove  successful,  as  soon  as  it  was 
known  that  it  had  been  undertaken,  the  people  of  Massachu 
setts,  at  the  imminent  hazard  of  their  lives  and  fortunes,  had 
accomplished  the  Revolution  as  far  as  respected  themselves.  It 
is  probable  that,  reasoning  on  general  principles  and  the  known 
attachment  of  the  English  people  to  their  constitution  and  lib 
erties,  and  their  deep  and  fixed  dislike  of  the  king's  religion  and 
politics,  the  people  of  New  England  expected  a  catastrophe 
fatal  to  the  power  of  the  reigning  prince.  Yet  it  was  neither 
certain  enough,  nor  near  enough,  to  come  to  their  aid  against 
the  authority  of  the  crown,  in  that  crisis  which  had  arrived,  and 
in  which  they  trusted  to  put  themselves,  relying  on  God  and 
their  own  courage.  There  were  spirits  in  Massachusetts  con 
genial  with  the  spirits  of  the  distinguished  friends  of  the  Revo 
lution  in  England.  There  were  those  who  were  fit  to  associate 
with  the  boldest  asserters  of  civil  liberty ;  and  Mather  himself, 
then  in  England,  was  not  unworthy  to  be  ranked  with  those 
sons  of  the  Church,  whose  firmness  and  spirit  in  resisting  kingly 
encroachments  in  matters  of  religion,  entitled  them  to  the  grati 
tude  of  their  own  and  succeeding  ages. 

The  second  century  opened  upon  New  England  under  cir 
cumstances  which  evinced  that  much  had  already  been  accom 
plished,  and  that  still  better  prospects  and  brighter  hopes  were 
before  her.  She  had  laid,  deep  and  strong,  the  foundations  of 
her  society.  Her  religious  principles  were  firm,  and  her  moral 
habits  exemplary.  Her  public  schools  had  begun  to  diffuse 
widely  the  elements  of  knowledge ;  and  the  College,  under  the 
excellent  and  acceptable  administration  of  Leverett,  had  been 
raised  to  a  high  degree  of  credit  and  usefulness. 

The  commercial  character  of  the  country,  notwithstanding  all 
discouragements,  had  begun  to  display  itself,  and  five  hundred 
vessels,  then  belonging  to  Massachusetts,  placed  her,  in  relation 
to  commerce,  thus  early  at  the  head  of  the  Colonies.  An  au 
thor  who  wrote  very  near  the  close  of  the  first  century  says :  — 
3* 


30  FIRST   SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 

"  New  England  is  almost  deservmg  that  noble  name,  so  mightil) 
hath  it  increased ;  and  from  a  small  settlement  at  first,  is  now 
become  a  very  populous  and  flourishing  government.  The  capi 
tal  city,  Boston,  is  a  place  of  great  v)ealth  and  trade ;  and  by 
much  the  largest  of  any  in  the  English  empire  of  America ;  and 
not  exceeded  but  by  few  cities,  perhaps  two  or  three,  in  all  the 
American  world." 

But  if  our  ancestors  at  the  close  of  the  first  century  could 
look  back  with  joy,  and  even  admiration,  at  the  progress  of  the 
country,  what  emotions  must  we  not  feel,  when,  from  the  point 
on  which  we  stand,  we  also  look  back  and  run  along  the  events 
of  the  century  which  has  now  closed !  The  country  which  then, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  thought  deserving  of  a  "  noble  name,"  — 
which  then  had  "  mightily  increased,"  and  become  "  very  popu 
lous,"  —  what  was  it,  in  comparison  with  what  our  eyes  behold 
it?  At  that  period,  a  very  great  proportion  of  its  inhabitants 
lived  in  the  eastern  section  of  Massachusetts  proper,  and  in  Ply 
mouth  Colony.  In  Connecticut,  there  were  towns  along  the 
coast,  some  of  them  respectable,  but  in  the  interior  all  was  a 
wilderness  beyond  Hartford.  On  Connecticut  River,  settlements 
had  proceeded  as  far  up  as  Deerfield,  and  Fort  Dummer  had 
been  built  near  where  is  now  the  south  line  of  New  Hampshire.. 
In  New  Hampshire  no  settlement  was  then  begun  thirty  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  Piscataqua  River,  and  in  what  is  now  Maine, 
the  inhabitants  were  confined  to  the  coast.  The  aggregate  of  the 
whole  population  of  New  England  did  not  exceed  one  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand.  Its  present  amount  (1820)  is  probably  one 
million  seven  hundred  thousand.  Instead  of  being  confined  to 
its  former  limits,  her  population  has  rolled  backward,  and  filled 
up  the  spaces  included  within  her  actual  local  boundaries.  Not 
this  only,  but  it  has  overflowed  those  boundaries,  and  the  waves 
of  emigration  have  pressed  farther  and  farther  toward  the  West. 
The  Alleghany  has  not  checked  it;  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  have 
been  covered  with  it.  New  England  farms,  houses,  villages, 
and  churches  spread  over  and  adorn  the  immense  extent  from 
the  Ohio  to  Lake  Erie,  and  stretch  along  from  the  Alleghany 
onwards,  beyond  the  Miamis,  and  toward  the  Falls  of  St.  An 
thony.  Two  thousand  miles  westward  from  the  rock  where 
their  fathers  landed,  may  now  be  found  the  sons  of  the  Pil 
grims,  cultivating  smiling  fields,  rearing  towns  and  villages,  and 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  31 

cherishing,  we  trust,  the  patrimonial  blessings  of  wise  institu 
tions,  of  liberty,  and  religion.  The  world  has  seen  nothing  like 
this.  Regions  large  enough  to  be  empires,  and  which,  half  a 
century  ago,  were  known  only  as  remote  and  unexplored  wil 
dernesses,  are  now  teeming  with  population,  and  prosperous  in 
all  the  great  concerns  of  life ;  in  good  governments,  the  means 
of  subsistence,  and  social  happiness.  It  may  be  safely  asserted, 
that  there  are  now  more  than  a  million  of  people,  descendants 
of  New  England  ancestry,  living,  free  and  happy,  in  regions 
which  scarce  sixty  years  ago  were  tracts  of  unpenetrated  forest. 
Nor  do  rivers,  or  mountains,  or  seas  resist  the  progress  of  indus 
try  and  enterprise.  Ere  long,  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims  will  be  on 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific.*  The  imagination  hardly  keeps  pace 
with  the  progress  of  population,  improvement,  and  civilization. 

It  is  now  five-and-forty  years  since  the  growth  and  rising 
glory  of  America  were  portrayed  in  the  English  Parliament, 
with  inimitable  beauty,  by  the  most  consummate  orator  of 
modern  times.  Going  back  somewhat  more  than  half  a  cen 
tury,  and  describing  our  progress  as  foreseen  from  that  point 
by  his  amiable  friend  Lord  Bathurst,  then  living,  he  spoke  of 
the  wonderful  progress  which  America  had  made  during  the 
period  of  a  single  human  life.  There  is  no  American  heart,  I 
imagine,  that  does  not  glow,  both  with  conscious,  patriotic  pride, 
and  admiration  for  one  of  the  happiest  efforts  of  eloquence,  so 
often  as  the  vision  of  "that  little  speck,  scarce  visible  in  the 
mass  of  national  interest,  a  small  seminal  principle,  rather  than 
a  formed  body,"  and  the  progress  of  its  astonishing  develop 
ment  and  growth,  are  recalled  to  the  recollection.  But  a  strong 
er  feeling  might  be  produced,  if  we  were  able  to  take  up  this 
prophetic  description  where  he  left  it,  and,  placing  ourselves  at 
the  point  of  time  in  which  he  was  speaking,  to  set  forth  with 
equal  felicity  the  subsequent  progress  of  the  country.  There  is 
yet  among  the  living  a  most  distinguished  and  venerable  name, 
a  descendant  of  the  Pilgrims;  one  who  has  been  attended 
through  life  by  a  great  and  fortunate  genius ;  a  man  illustrious 
by  his  own  great  merits,  and  favored  of  Heaven  in  the  long 
continuation  of  his  years.f  The  time  when  the  English  orator 

*  In  reference  to  the  fulfilment  of  this  prediction,  see  Mr.  Webster's  Address 
at  the  Celebration  of  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York,  on  the  £3d  of  De 
cember,  1850. 

t  John  Adams,  second  President  of  the  United  States. 


32  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

was  thus  speaking  of  America  preceded  but  by  a  few  days  the 
actual  opening  of  the  revolutionary  drama  at  Lexington.  He 
to  whom  I  have  alluded,  then  at  the  age  of  forty,  was  among 
the  most  zealous  and  able  defenders  of  the  violated  rights  of  his 
country.  He  seemed  already  to  have  filled  a  full  measure  of 
public  service,  and  attained  an  honorable  fame.  The  moment 
was  full  of  difficulty  and  danger,  and  big  with  events  of  im 
measurable  importance.  The  country  was  on  the  very  brink  of 
a  civil  war,  of  which  no  man  could  foretell  the  duration  or  the 
result.  Something  more  than  a  courageous  hope,  or  character 
istic  ardor,  would  have  been  necessary  to  impress  the  glorious 
prospect  on  his  belief,  if,  at  that  moment,  before  the  sound  of  the 
first  shock  of  actual  war  had  reached  his  ears,  some  attendant, 
spirit  had  opened  to  him  the  vision  of  the  future; — if  it  had  said 
to  him,  "  The  blow  is  struck,  and  America  is  severed  from  Eng 
land  for  ever!"-  — if  it  had  informed  him,  that  he  himself,  during 
the  next  annual  revolution  of  the  sun,  should  put  his  own  hand  to 
the  great  instrument  of  independence,  and  write  his  name  where 
all  nations  should  behold  it  and  all  time  should  not  efface  it ; 
that  ere  long  he  himself  should  maintain  the  interests  and  repre 
sent  the  sovereignty  of  his  new-born  country  in  the  proudest 
courts  of  Europe ;  that  he  should  one  day  exercise  her  supreme 
magistracy;  that  he  should  yet  live  to  behold  ten  millions  of 
fellow-citizens  paying  him  the  homage  of  their  deepest  grati 
tude  and  kindest  affections;  that  he  should  see  distinguished 
talent  and  high  public  trust  resting  where  his  name  rested ;  that 
he  should  even  see  with  his  own  unclouded  eyes  the  close  of  the 
second  century  of  New  England,  who  had  begun  life  almost  with 
its  commencement,  and  lived  through  nearly  half  the  whole  his 
tory  of  his  country ;  and  that  on  the  morning  of  this  auspicious 
day  he  should  be  found  in  the  political  councils  of  his  native 
State,  revising,  by  the  light  of  experience,  that  system  of  gov 
ernment  which  forty  years  before  he  had  assisted  to  frame  and 
establish;  and,  great  and  happy  as  he  should  then  behold  his 
country,  there  should  be  nothing  in  prospect  to  cloud  the  scene, 
nothing  to  check  the  ardor  of  that  confident  and  patriotic  hope 
which  should  glow  in  his  bosom  to  the  end  of  his  long  protract 
ed  and  happy  life. 

It  would  far  exceed  the  limits  of  this  discourse  even  to  men 
tion  the  principal  events  in  the  civil  and  political  history  of  New 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  33 

England  during  the  century ;  the  more  so,  as  for  the  last  half  of 
the  period  that  history  has,  most  happily,  been  closely  inter 
woven  with  the  general  history  of  the  United  States.  New 
England  bore  an  honorable  part  in  the  wars  which  took  place 
between  England  and  France.  The  capture  of  Louisburg  gave 
her  a  character  for  military  achievement ;  and  in  the  war  which 
terminated  with  the  peace  of  1763,  her  exertions  on  the  frontiers 
were  of  most  essential  service,  as  well  to  the  mother  country  as 
to  ah1  the  Colonies. 

In  New  England  the  war  of  the  Revolution  commenced.  1 
address  those  who  remember  the  memorable  19th  of  April, 
1775 ;  who  shortly  after  saw  the  burning  spires  of  Charlestown ; 
who  beheld  the  deeds  of  Prescott,  and  heard  the  voice  of  Put 
nam  amidst  the  storm  of  war,  and  saw  the  generous  Warren 
fall,  the  first  distinguished  victim  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  It 
would  be  superfluous  to  say,  that  no  portion  of  the  country  did 
more  than  the  States  of  New  England  to  bring  the  Revolution 
ary  struggle  to  a  successful  issue.  It  is  scarcely  less  to  her 
credit,  that  she  saw  early  the  necessity  of  a  closer  union  of  the 
States,  and  gave  an  efficient  and  indispensable  aid  to  the  estab 
lishment  and  organization  of  the  federal  government. 

Perhaps  we  might  safely  say,  that  a  new  spirit  and  a  new  ex 
citement  began  to  exist  here  about  the  middle  of  the  last  cen 
tury.  To  whatever  causes  it  may  be  imputed,  there  seems  then 
to  have  commenced  a  more  rapid  improvement.  The  Colonies 
had  attracted  more  of  the  attention  of  the  mother  country,  and 
some  renown  in  arms  had  been  acquired.  Lord  Chatham  was 
the  first  English  minister  who  attached  high  importance  to 
these  possessions  of  the  crown,  and  who  foresaw  any  thing  of 
then*  future  growth  and  extension.  His  opinion  was,  that  the 
great  rival  of  England  was  chiefly  to  be  feared  as  a  maritime 
and  commercial  power,  and  to  drive  her  out  of  North  America 
and  deprive  her  of  her  West  Indian  possessions  was  a  leading 
object  in  his  policy.  He  dwelt  often  on  the  fisheries,  as  nurs 
eries  for  British  seamen,  and  the  colonial  trade,  as  furnishing 
them  employment.  The  war,  conducted  by  him  with  so  much 
vigor,  terminated  in  a  peace,  by  which  Canada  was  ceded  to 
England.  The  effect  of  this  was  immediately  visible  in  the 
New  England  Colonies ;  for,  the  fear  of  Indian  hostilities  on  the 
frontiers  being  now  happily  removed,  settlements  went  on  with 


34  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 

an  activity  before  that  time  altogether  unprecedented,  and  pub 
lic  affairs  wore  a  new  and  encouraging  aspect.  Shortly  after 
this  fortunate  termination  of  the  French  war,  the  interesting 
topics  connected  with  the  taxation  of  America  by  the  British 
Parliament  began  to  be  discussed,  and  the  attention  and  all  the 
faculties  of  the  people  drawn  towards  them.  There  is  perhaps 
no  portion  of  our  history  more  full  of  interest  than  the  period 
from  1760  to  the  actual  commencement  of  the  war.  The  prog 
ress  of  opinion  in  this  period,  though  less  known,  is  not  less 
important  than  the  progress  of  arms  afterwards.  Nothing  de 
serves  more  consideration  than  those  events  and  discussions 
which  affected  the  public  sentiment  and  settled  the  revolution 
in  men's  minds,  before  hostilities  openly  broke  out. 

Internal  improvement  followed  the  establishment  and  pros 
perous  commencement  of  the  present  government.  More  has 
been  done  for  roads,  canals,  and  other  public  works,  within  the 
last  thirty  years,  than  in  all  our  former  history.  In  the  first  of 
these  particulars,  few  countries  excel  the  New  England  States. 
The  astonishing  increase  of  their  navigation  and  trade  is  known  to 
every  one,  and  now  belongs  to  the  history  of  our  national  wealth. 

We  may  flatter  ourselves,  too,  that  literature  and  taste  have 
not  been  stationary,  and  that  some  advancement  has  been  made 
in  the  elegant,  as  well  as  in  the  useful  arts. 

The  nature  and  constitution  of  society  and  government  in 
this  country  are  interesting  topics,  to  which  I  would  devote 
what  remains  of  the  time  allowed  to  this  occasion.  Of  our 
system  of  government  the  first  thing  to  be  said  is,  that  it  is 
really  and  practically  a  free  system.  It  originates  entirely  with 
the  people,  and  rests  on  no  other  foundation  than  their  assent 
To  judge  of  its  actual  operation,  it  is  not  enough  to  look  merely 
at  the  form  of  its  construction.  The  practical  character  of  gov 
ernment  depends  often  on  a  variety  of  considerations,  besides 
the  abstract  frame  of  its  constitutional  organization.  Among 
these  are  the  condition  and  tenure  of  property ;  the  laws  regu 
lating  its  alienation  and  descent ;  the  presence  or  absence  of  a 
military  power ;  an  armed  or  unarmed  yeomanry ;  the  spirit  oi 
the  age,  and  the  degree  of  general  intelligence.  In  these  re 
spects  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  circumstances  of  this  coun 
try  are  most  favorable  to  the  hope  of  maintaining  the  govern- 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  35 

ment  of  a  great  nation  on  principles  entirely  popular.  In  the 
absence  of  military  power,  the  nature  of  government  must  es 
sentially  depend  on  the  manner  in  which  property  is  holden 
and  distributed.  There  is  a  natural  influence  belonging  to  prop 
erty,  whether  it  exists  in  many  hands  or  few;  and  it  is  on  the 
rights  of  property  that  both  despotism  and  unrestrained  popular 
violence  ordinarily  commence  their  attacks.  Our  ancestors  be 
gan  their  system  of  government  here  under  a  condition  of  com 
parative  equality  in  regard  to  wealth,  and  their  early  laws  were 
of  a  nature  to  favor  and  continue  this  equality. 

A  republican  form  of  government  rests  not  more  on  political 
constitutions,  than  on  those  laws  which  regulate  the  descent 
and  transmission  of  property.  Governments  like  ours  could  not 
have  been  maintained,  where  property  was  holden  according  to 
the  principles  of  the  feudal  system;  nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
could  the  feudal  constitution  possibly  exist  with  us.  Our  New 
England  ancestors  brought  hither  no  great  capitals  from  Eu 
rope  ;  and  if  they  had,  there  was  nothing  productive  in  which 
they  could  have  been  invested.  They  left  behind  them  the 
whole  feudal  policy  of  the  other  continent.  They  broke  away 
at  once  from  the  system  of  military  service  established  in  the 
Dark  Ages,  and  which  continues,  down  even  to  the  present 
time,  more  or  less  to  affect  the  condition  of  property  ah1  over 
Europe.  They  came  to  a  new  country.  There  were,  as  yet, 
no  lands  yielding  rent,  and  no  tenants  rendering  service.  The 
whole  soil  was  unreclaimed  from  barbarism.  They  were  them 
selves,  either  from  their  original  condition,  or  from  the  ne 
cessity  of  their  common  interest,  nearly  on  a  general  level  in 
respect  to  property.  Their  situation  demanded  a  parcelling  out 
and  division  of  the  lands,  and  it  may  be  fairly  said,  that  this 
necessary  act  fixed  the  future  frame  and  form  of  their  govern 
ment.  The  character  of  their  political  institutions  was  deter 
mined  by  the  fundamental  laws  respecting  property.  The  laws 
rendered  estates  divisible  among  sons  and  daughters.  The  right 
of  primogeniture,  at  first  limited  and  curtailed,  was  afterwards 
abolished.  The  property  was  all  freehold.  •  The  entailment  of 
estates,  long  trusts,  and  the  other  processes  for  fettering  and 
tying  up  inheritances,  were  not  applicable  to  the  condition  of 
society,  and  seldom  made  use  of.  On  the  contrary,  alienation 
of  the  land  was  every  way  facilitated,  even  to  the  subjecting  of 


36  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 

it  to  every  species  of  debt.  The  establishment  of  public  regis 
tries,  and  the  simplicity  of  our  forms  of  conveyance,  have  great 
ly  facilitated  the  change  of  real  estate  from  one  proprietor  to 
another.  The  consequence  of  all  these  causes  has  been,  a  great 
subdivision  of  the  soil,  and  a  great  equality  of  condition ;  the 
true  basis,  most  certainly,  of  a  popular  government.  "  If  the 
people,"  says  Harrington,  "  hold  three  parts  in  four  of  the  terri 
tory,  it  is  plain  there  can  neither  be  any  single  person  nor  nobil 
ity  able  to  dispute  the  government  with  them;  in  this  case, 
therefore,  except  force  be  interposed,  they  govern  themselves." 

The  history  of  other  nations  may  teach  us  how  favorable  to 
public  liberty  are  the  division  of  the  soil  into  small  freeholds,  and 
a  system  of  laws,  of  which  the  tendency  is,  without  violence  or 
injustice,  to  produce  and  to  preserve  a  degree  of  equality  of 
property.  It  has  been  estimated,  if  I  mistake  not,  that  about 
the  time  of  Henry  the  Seventh  four  fifths  of  the  land  in  Eng 
land  was  holden  by  the  great  barons  and  ecclesiastics.  The 
elfects  of  a  growing  commerce  soon  afterwards  began  to  break 
in  on  this  state  of  things,  and  before  the  Revolution,  in  1688,  a 
vast  change  had  been  wrought.  It  may  be  thought  probable, 
that,  for  the  last  half-century,  the  process  of  subdivision  in 
England  has  been  retarded,  if  not  reversed ;  that  the  great 
weight  of  taxation  has  compelled  many  of  the  lesser  free 
holders  to  dispose  of  their  estates,  and  to  seek  employment  in 
the  army  and  navy,  in  the  professions  of  civil  life,  in  com 
merce,  or  in  the  colonies.  The  effect  of  this  on  the  British  con 
stitution  cannot  but  be  most  unfavorable.  A  few  large  estates 
grow  larger ;  but  the  number  of  those  who  have  no  estates  also 
increases ;  and  there  may  be  danger,  lest  the  inequality  of  prop 
erty  become  so  great,  that  those  who  possess  it  may  be  dispos 
sessed  by  force ;  in  other  words,  that  the  government  may  be 
overturned. 

A  most  interesting  experiment  of  the  effect  of  a  subdivision 
of  property  on  government  is  now  making  in  France.  It  is 
understood,  that  the  law  regulating  the  transmission  of  property 
in  that  country,  now  divides  it,  real  and  personal,  among  all  the 
children  equally,  both  sons  and  daughters ;  and  that  there  is, 
also,  a  very  great  restraint  on  the  power  of  making  dispositions 
of  property  by  will.  It  has  been  supposed,  that  the  effects  of  this 
might  probably  be,  in  time,  to  break  up  the  soil  into  such  small 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  37 

subdivisions,  that  the  proprietors  would  be  too  poor  to  resist 
the  encroachments  of  executive  power.  I  think  far  otherwise. 
What  is  lost  in  individual  wealth  will  be  more  than  gained  in 
numbers,  in  intelligence,  and  in  a  sympathy  of  sentiment.  If, 
indeed,  only  one  or  a  few  landholders  were  to  resist  the  crown, 
like  the  barons  of  England,  they  must,  of  course,  be  great  and 
powerful  landholders,  with  multitudes  of  retainers,  to  promise 
success.  But  if  the  proprietors  of  a  given  extent  of  territory 
are  summoned  to  resistance,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
such  resistance  would  be  less  forcible,  or  less  successful,  because 
the  number  of  such  proprietors  happened  to  be  great.  Each 
would  perceive  his  own  importance,  and  his  own  interest,  and 
would  feel  that  natural  elevation  of  character  which  the  con 
sciousness  of  property  inspires.  A  common  sentiment  would 
unite  all,  and  numbers  would  not  only  add  strength,  but  excite 
enthusiasm.  It  is  true,  that  France  possesses  a  vast  military 
force,  under  the  direction  of  an  hereditary  executive  government ; 
and  military  power,  it  is  possible,  may  overthrow  any  govern 
ment.  It  is  in  vain,  however,  in  this  period  of  the  world,  to 
look  for  security  against  military  power  to  the  arm  of  the  great 
landholders.  That  notion  is  derived  from  a  state  of  things 
long  since  past ;  a  state  in  which  a  feudal  baron,  with  his  re 
tainers,  might  stand  against  the  sovereign  and  his  retainers, 
himself  but  the  greatest  baron.  But  at  present,  what  could  the 
richest  landholder  do,  against  one  regiment  of  disciplined  troops  ? 
Other  securities,  therefore,  against  the  prevalence  of  military 
power  must  be  provided.  Happily  for  us,  we  are  not  so  situated 
as  that  any  purpose  of  national  defence  requires,  ordinarily  and 
constantly,  such  a  military  force  as  might  seriously  endanger  ou? 
liberties. 

In  respect,  however,  to  the  recent  law  of  succession  in  France, 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  I  would,  presumptously  perhaps,  hazard 
a  conjecture,  that,  if  the  government  do  not  change  the  law,  the 
law  in  half  a  century  will  change  the  government ;  and  that  this 
change  will  be,  not  in  favor  of  the  power  of  the  crown,  as 
some  European  writers  have  supposed,  but  against  it.  Those 
writers  only  reason  upon  what  they  think  correct  general  princi 
ples,  in  relation  to  this  subject.  They  acknowledge  a  want  of 
experience.  Here  we  have  had  that  experience  ;  and  we  know 
that  a  multitude  of  small  proprietors,  acting  with  intelligence, 

VOL.  i.  4 


38  .FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF   NEW  ENGLAND. 

and  that  enthusiasm  which  a  common  cause  inspires,  constitute 
not  only  a  formidable,  but  an  invincible  power.* 

The  true  principle  of  a  free  and  popular  government  would 
seem  to  be,  so  to  construct  it  as  to  give  to  all,  or  at  least  to  a 
very  great  majority,  an  interest  in  its  preservation ;  to  found  it, 
as  other  things  are  founded,  on  men's  interest.  The  stability 
of  government  demands  that  those  who  desire  its  continuance 
should  be  more  powerful  than  those  who  desire  its  dissolution. 
This  power,  of  course,  is  not  always  to  be  measured  by  mere 
numbers.  Education,  wealth,  talents,  are  all  parts  and  elements 
of  the  general  aggregate  of  power ;  but  numbers,  nevertheless, 
constitute  ordinarily  the  most  important  consideration,  unless, 
indeed,  there  be  a  military  force  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  by 
which  they  can  control  the  many.  In  this  country  we  have 
actually  existing  systems  of  government,  in  the  maintenance  of 
which,  it  should  seem,  a  great  majority,  both  in  numbers  and  in 
other  means  of  power  and  influence,  must  see  their  interest. 
But  this  state  of  things  is  not  brought  about  solely  by  written 
political  constitutions,  or  the  mere  manner  of  organizing  the 
government ;  but  also  by  the  laws  which  regulate  the  descent 
and  transmission  of  property.  The  freest  government,  if  it 
could  exist,  would  not  be  long  acceptable,  if  the  tendency  of  the 
laws  were  to  create  a  rapid  accumulation  of  property  in  few 
hands,  and  to  render  the  great  mass  of  the  population  dependent 
and  penniless.  In  such  a  case,  the  popular  power  would  be 
likely  to  break  in  upon  the  rights  of  property,  or  else  the  in 
fluence  of  property  to  limit  and  control  the  exercise  of  popular 
power.  "Universal  suffrage,  for  example,  could  not  long  exist  in 
a  community  where  there  was  great  inequality  of  property. 
The  holders  of  estates  would  be  obliged,  in  such  case,  in 
some  way  to  restrain  the  right  of  suffrage,  or  else  such  right 
of  suffrage  would,  before  long,  divide  the  property.  In  the 
nature  of  things,  those  who  have  not  property,  and  see  their 
neighbors  possess  much  more  than  they  think  them  to  need, 
cannot  be  favorable  to  laws  made  for  the  protection  of  prop 
erty.  When  this  class  becomes  numerous,  it  grows  clamorous. 
It  looks  on  property  as  its  prey  and  plunder,  and  is  naturally 
ready,  at  all  times,  for  violence  and  revolution. 

*  See  Note  B,  at  the  end  of  the  Discourse. 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  39 

It  would  seem,  then,  to  be  the  part  of  political  wisdom  to 
found  government  on  property ;  and  to  establish  such  distribu 
tion  of  property,  by  the  laws  which  regulate  its  transmission  and 
alienation,  as  to  interest  the  great  majority  of  society  in  the  sup 
port  of  the  government.  This  is,  I  imagine,  the  true  theory  and 
the  actual  practice  of  our  republican  institutions.  With  property 
divided  as  we  have  it,  no  other  government  than  that  of  a  re 
public  could  be  maintained,  even  were  we  foolish  enough  to 
desire  it.  There  is  reason,  therefore,  to  expect  a  long  continu 
ance  of  our  system.  Party  and  passion,  doubtless,  may  prevail 
at  times,  and  much  temporary  mischief  be  done.  Even  modes 
and  forms  may  be  changed,  and  perhaps  for  the  worse.  But  a 
great  revolution  in  regard  to  property  must  take  place,  before 
our  governments  can  be  moved  from  their  republican  basis,  unless 
they  be  violently  struck  off  by  military  power.  The  people 
possess  the  property,  more  emphatically  than  it  could  ever  be 
said  of  the  people  of  any  other  country,  and  they  can  have  no 
interest  to  overturn  a  government  which  protects  that  property 
by  equal  laws. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  that  this  state  of  things  possesses  too 
strong  tendencies  towards  the  production  of  a  dead  and  un 
interesting  level  in  society.  Such  tendencies  are  sufficiently 
counteracted  by  the  infinite  diversities  in  the  characters  and 
fortunes  of  individuals.  Talent,  activity,  industry,  and  enter 
prise  tend  at  all  times  to  produce  inequality  and  distinction; 
and  there  is  room  still  for  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  with  its 
great  advantages,  to  all  reasonable  and  useful  extent.  It  has 
been  often  urged  against  the  state  of  society  in  America,  that  it 
furnishes  no  class  of  men  of  fortune  and  leisure.  This  may  be 
partly  true,  but  it  is  not  entirely  so,  and  the  evil,  if  it  be  one, 
would  affect  rather  the  progress  of  taste  and  literature,  than  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  people.  But  the  promotion  of  taste 
and  literature  cannot  be  primary  objects  of  political  institutions  ; 
and  if  they  could,  it  might  be  doubted  whether,  in  the  long 
course  of  things,  as  much  is  not  gained  by  a  wide  diffusion  of 
general  knowledge,  as  is  lost  by  diminishing  the  number  of  those 
who  are  enabled  by  fortune  and  leisure  to  devote  themselves  ex 
clusively  to  scientific  and  literary  pursuits.  However  this  may 
be,  it  is  to  be  considered  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  our  system  to 
be  equal  and  general,  and  if  there  be  particular  disadvantages 


40  FIRS1    SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

incident  to  this,  they  are  far  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
benefits  which  weigh  against  them.  The  important  concerns  of 
society  are  generally  conducted,  in  all  countries,  by  the  men  of 
business  and  practical  ability ;  and  even  in  matters  of  taste  and 
literature,  the  advantages  of  mere  leisure  are  liable  to  be  over 
rated.  If  there  exist  adequate  means  of  education  and  a  love 
of  letters  be  excited,  that  love  will  find  its  way  to  the  object  of 
its  desire,  through  the  crowd  and  pressure  of  the  most  busy 
society. 

Connected  with  this  division  of  property,  and  the  consequent 
participation  of  the  great  mass  of  people  in  its  possession  and 
enjoyments,  is  the  system  of  representation,  which  is  admirably 
accommodated  to  our  condition,  better  understood  among  us, 
and  more  familiarly  and  extensively  practised,  in  the  higher  and 
in  the  lower  departments  of  government,  than  it  has  been  by 
any  other  people.  Great  facility  has  been  given  to  this  in  New 
England  by  the  early  division  of  the  country  into  townships 
or  small  districts,  in  which  all  concerns  of  local  police  are  regu 
lated,  and  in  which  representatives  to  the  legislature  are  elected. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  utility  of  these  little  bodies.  They  are 
so  many  councils  or  parliaments,  in  which  common  interests 
are  discussed,  and  useful  knowledge  acquired  and  communi 
cated. 

The  division  of  governments  into  departments,  and  the  divis 
ion,  again,  of  the  legislative  department  into  two  chambers,  are 
essential  provisions  in  our  system.  This  last,  although  not 
new  in  itself,  yet  seems  to  be  new  in  its  application  to  govern 
ments  wholly  popular.  The  Grecian  republics,  it  is  plain,  knew 
nothing  of  it ;  and  in  Rome,  the  check  and  balance  of  legisla 
tive  power,  such  as  it  was,  lay  between  the  people  and  the 
senate.  Indeed,  few  things  are  more  difficult  than  to  ascertain 
accurately  the  true  nature  and  construction  of  the  Roman  com 
monwealth.  The  relative  power  of  the  senate  and  the  people, 
of  the  consuls  and  the  tribunes,  appears  not  to  have  been  at  all 
times  the  same,  nor  at  any  time  accurately  defined  or  strictly 
observed.  Cicero,  indeed,  describes  to  us  an  admirable  arrange 
ment  of  political  power,  and  a  balance  of  the  constitution,  in 
that  beautiful  passage,  in  which  he  compares  the  democracies 
of  Greece  with  the  Roman  commonwealth.  "  O  morem  precla- 
rum,  disciplinamque,  quam  a  majoribus  accepimus,  si  quidem 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  41 

teneremus!  sed  nescio  quo  pacto  jam  de  manibus  elabitur. 
Nullam  enim  illi  nostri  sapientissimi  et  sanctissimi  viri  vim 
concionis  esse  voluerunt,  qua?  scisseret  plebs,  aut  quse  populus 
juberet ;  summota  concione,  distributis  partibus,  tributim  et  cen- 
turiatim  descriptis  ordinibus,  classibus,  setatibus,  auditis  auctori- 
bus,  re  multos  dies  promulgata  et  cognita,  juberi  vetarique  volu 
erunt.  Graecorum  autem  totss  respublicce  sedentis  concionis 
temeritate  administrantur."  * 

But  at  what  time  this  wise  system  existed  in  this  perfection 
at  Rome,  no  proofs  remain  to  show.  Her  constitution,  origi 
nally  framed  for  a  monarchy,  never  seemed  to  be  adjusted  in 
its  several  parts  after  the  expulsion  of  the  kings.  Liberty  there 
was,  but  it  was  a  disputatious,  an  uncertain,  an  ill-secured 
liberty.  The  patrician  and  plebeian  orders,  instead  of  being 
matched  and  joined,  each  in  its  just  place  and  proportion,  to 
sustain  the  fabric  of  the  state,  were  rather  like  hostile  powers, 
in  perpetual  conflict.  With  us,  an  attempt  has  been  made,  and 
so  far  not  without  success,  to  divide  representation  into  cham 
bers,  and,  by  difference  of  age,  character,  qualification,  or  mode  of 
election,  to  establish  salutary  checks,  in  governments  altogether 
elective. 

Having  detained  you  so  long  with  these  observations,  I  must 
yet  advert  to  another  most  interesting  topic,  —  the  Free  Schools. 
In  this  particular,  New  England  may  be  allowed  to  claim,  I 
think,  a  merit  of  a  peculiar  character.  She  early  adopted,  and 
has  constantly  maintained  the  principle,  that  it  is  the  undoubt 
ed  right  and  the  bounden  duty  of  government  to  provide  for 
the  instruction  of  all  youth.  That  which  is  elsewhere  left  to 
chance  or  to  charity,  we  secure  by  law.f  For  the  purpose  of 
public  instruction,  we  hold  every  man  subject  to  taxation  in  pro 
portion  to  his  property,  and  we  look  not  to  the  question,  wheth 
er  he  himself  have,  or  have  not,  children  to  be  benefited  by  the 
education  for  which  he  pays.  We  regard  it  as  a  wise  and  lib- 

*  Oratio  pro  Flacco,  §  7. 

f  The  first  free  school  established  by  law  in  the  Plymouth  Colony  was  in 
1670  -  72.  One  of  the  early  teachers  in  Boston  taught  school  more  than  seventy 
years.  See  Cotton  Mather's  "  Funeral  Sermon  upon  Mr.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  the 
ancient  and  honorable  Master  of  the  Free  School  in  Boston." 

For  the  impression  made  upon  the  mind  of  an  intelligent  foreigner  by  the  gen 
eral  attention  to  popular  education,  as  characteristic  of  the  American  polity,  see 
Mackay's  Western  World,  Vol.  III.  p.  225  et  seq.  Also,  Edinburgh  Review, 
No.  186. 

4* 


42  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

eral  system  of  police,  by  which  property,  and  life,  and  the  peace 
of  society  are  secured.  We  seek  to  prevent  in  some  measure 
the  extension  of  the  penal  code,  by  inspiring  a  salutary  and  con 
servative  principle  of  virtue  and  of  knowledge  in  an  early  age. 
We  strive  to  excite  a  feeling  of  respectability,  and  a  sense  of 
character,  by  enlarging  the  capacity  and  increasing  the  sphere  of 
intellectual  enjoyment.  By  general  instruction,  we  seek,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  purify  the  whole  moral  atmosphere;  to  keep 
good  sentiments  uppermost,  and  to  turn  the  strong  current  of 
feeling  and  opinion,  as  well  as  the  censures  of  the  law  and  the 
denunciations  of  religion,  against  immorality  and  crime.  We 
hope  for  a  security  beyond  the  law,  and  above  the  law,  in  the 
prevalence  of  an  enlightened  and  well-principled  moral  senti 
ment.  We  hope  to  continue  and  prolong  the  time,  when,  in 
the  villages  and  farm-houses  of  New  England,  there  may  be  un 
disturbed  sleep  within  unbarred  doors.  And  knowing  that  our 
government  rests  directly  on  the  public  will,  in  order  that  we 
may  preserve  it  we  endeavor  to  give  a  safe  and  proper  direction 
to  that  public  will.  We  do  not,  indeed,  expect  all  men  to  be 
philosophers  or  statesmen;  but  we  confidently  trust,  and  our 
expectation  of  the  duration  of  our  system  of  government  rests 
on  that  trust,  that,  by  the  diffusion  of  general  knowledge  and 
good  and  virtuous  sentiments,  the  political  fabric  may  be  secure, 
as  well  against  open  violence  and  overthrow,  as  against  the 
slow,  but  sure,  undermining  of  licentiousness. 

We  know  that,  at  the  present  time,  an  attempt  is  making  in 
the  English  Parliament  to  provide  by  law  for  the  education  of 
the  poor,  and  that  a  gentleman  of  distinguished  character  (Mr. 
Brougham)  has  taken  the  lead  in  presenting  a  plan  to  govern 
ment  for  carrying  that  purpose  into  effect.  And  yet,  although 
the  representatives  of  the  three  kingdoms  listened  to  him  with 
astonishment  as  well  as  delight,  we  hear  no  principles  with 
which  we  ourselves  have  not  been  familiar  from  youth ;  we  see 
nothing  in  the  plan  but  an  approach  towards  that  system  which 
has  been  established  in  New  England  for  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half.  It  is  said  that  in  England  not  more  than  one  child 
in  fifteen  possesses  the  means  of  being  taught  to  read  and  write; 
in  Wales,  one  in  twenty;  in  France,  until  lately,  when  some  im 
provement  was  made,  not  more  than  one  in  thirty-five.  Now,  it 
is  hardly  too  strong  to  say,  that  in  New  England  every  child 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  43 

possesses  such  means.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  instance 
to  the  contrary,  unless  where  it  should  be  owing  to  the  negli 
gence  of  the  parent ;  and,  in  truth,  the  means  are  actually  used 
and  enjoyed  by  nearly  every  one.  A  youth  of  fifteen,  of  either 
sex,  who  cannot  both  read  and  write,  is  very  seldom  to  be  found. 
Who  can  make  this  comparison,  or  contemplate  this  spectacle, 
without  delight  and  a  feeling  of  just  pride  ?  Does  any  history 
show  property  more  beneficently  applied  ?  Did  any  govern 
ment  ever  subject  the  property  of  those  who  have  estates  to  a 
burden,  for  a  purpose  more  favorable  to  the  poor,  or  more  useful 
to  the  whole  community  ? 

A  conviction  of  the  importance  of  public  instruction  was  one 
of  the  earliest  sentiments  of  our  ancestors.  No  lawgiver  of 
ancient  or  modern  times  has  expressed  more  just  opinions,  or 
adopted  wiser  measures,  than  the  early  records  of  the  Colony 
of  Plymouth  show  to  have  prevailed  here.  Assembled  on  this 
very  spot,  a  hundred  and  fifty-three  years  ago,  the  legislature 
of  this  Colony  declared,  "  Forasmuch  as  the  maintenance  of 
good  literature  doth  much  tend  to  the  advancement  of  the  weal 
and  flourishing  state  of  societies  and  republics,  this  Court  doth 
therefore  order,  that  in  whatever  township  in  this  government, 
consisting  of  fifty  families  or  upwards,  any  meet  man  shall  be 
obtained  to  teach  a  grammar  school,  such  township  shall  allow 
at  least  twelve  pounds,  to  be  raised  by  rate  on  all  the  inhab 
itants." 

Having  provided  that  all  youth  should  be  instructed  in  the 
elements  of  learning  by  the  institution  of  free  schools,  our  an 
cestors  had  yet  another  duty  to  perform.  Men  were  to  be  edu 
cated  for  the  professions  and  the  public.  For  this  purpose  they 
founded  the  University,  and  with  incredible  zeal  and  persever 
ance  they  cherished  and  supported  it,  through  all  trials  and  dis 
couragements.*  On  the  subject  of  the  University,  it  is  not  pos 
sible  for  a  son  of  New  England  to  think  without  pleasure,  or 
to  speak  without  emotion.  Nothing  confers  more  honor  on  the 
State  where  it  is  established,  or  more  utility  on  the  country  at 
large.  A  respectable  university  is  an  establishment  which  must 

*  By  a  law  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  passed  as  early  as  1647,  it 
was  ordered,  that,  "  when  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  number  of  one  hundred 
families  or  householders,  they  shall  set  up  a  grammar  school,  the  master  thereof 
being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University." 


44  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

be  the  work  of  time.  If  pecuniary  means  were  not  wanting,  no 
new  institution  could  possess  character  and  respectability  at 
once.  We  owe  deep  obligation  to  our  ancestors,  who  began, 
almost  on  the  moment  of  their  arrival,  the  work  of  building  up 
this  institution. 

Although  established  in  a  different  government,  the  Colony  of 
Plymouth  manifested  warm  friendship  for  Harvard  College.  At 
an  early  period,  its  government  took  measures  to  promote  a 
general  subscription  throughout  all  the  towns  in  this  Colony, 
in  aid  of  its  small  funds.  Other  colleges  were  subsequently 
founded  and  endowed,  in  other  places,  as  the  ability  of  the  peo 
ple  allowed ;  and  we  may  natter  ourselves,  that  the  means  of 
education  at  present  enjoyed  in  New  England  are  not  only 
adequate  to  the  diffusion  of  the  elements  of  knowledge  among 
all  classes,  but  sufficient  also  for  respectable  attainments  in  lit 
erature  and  the  sciences. 

Lastly,  our  ancestors  established  their  system  of  government 
on  morality  and  religious  sentiment.  Moral  habits,  they  be 
lieved,  cannot  safely  be  trusted  on  any  other  foundation  than 
religious  principle,  nor  any  government  be  secure  which  is  not 
supported  by  moral  habits.  Living  under  the  heavenly  light  of 
revelation,  they  hoped  to  find  all  the  social  dispositions,  all  the 
duties  which  men  owe  to  each  other  and  to  society,  enforced 
and  performed.  Whatever  makes  men  good  Christians,  makes 
them  good  citizens.  Our  fathers  came  here  to  enjoy  their  re 
ligion  free  and  unmolested;  and,  at  the  end  of  two  centuries, 
there  is  nothing  upon  which  we  can  pronounce  more  confident 
ly,  nothing  of  which  we  can  express  a  more  deep  and  earnest 
conviction,  than  of  the  inestimable  importance  of  that  relig 
ion  to  man,  both  in  regard  to  this  life  and  that  which  is  to 
come. 

If  the  blessings  of  our  political  and  social  condition  have  not 
been  too  highly  estimated,  we  cannot  well  overrate  the  responsi 
bility  and  duty  which  they  impose  upon  us.  We  hold  these 
institutions  of  government,  religion,  and  learning,  to  be  trans 
mitted,  as  well  as  enjoyed.  We  are  in  the  line  of  conveyance, 
through  which  whatever  has  been  obtained  by  the  spirit  and 
efforts  of  our  ancestors  is  to  be  communicated  to  our  chil 
dren. 

We  are  bound  to  maintain  public  liberty,  and,  by  the  example 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  45 

of  our  own  systems,  to  convince  the  world  that  order  and  law, 
religion  and  morality,  the  rights  of  conscience,  the  rights  of  per 
sons,  and  the  rights  of  property,  may  all  be  preserved  and  se 
cured,  iii  the  most  perfect  manner,  by  a  government  entirely 
and  purely  elective.  If  we  fail  in  this,  our  disaster  will  be  sig 
nal,  and  will  furnish  an  argument,  stronger  than  has  yet  been 
found,  in  support  of  those  opinions  which  maintain  that  gov 
ernment  can  rest  safely  on  nothing  but  power  and  coercion.  As 
far  as  experience  may  show  errors  in  our  establishments,  we  are 
bound  to  correct  them ;  and  if  any  practices  exist  contrary  to 
the  principles  of  justice  and  humanity  within  the  reach  of  our 
laws  or  our  influence,  we  are  inexcusable  if  we  do  not  exert 
ourselves  to  restrain  and  abolish  them. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  on  this  occasion  to  suggest,  that  the  land 
is  not  yet  wholly  free  from  the  contamination  of  a  traffic,  at 
which  every  feeling  of  humanity  must  for  ever  revolt,  —  I  mean 
the  African  slave-trade.*  Neither  public  sentiment,  nor  the  law, 
has  hitherto  been  able  entirely  to  put  an  end  to  this  odious  and 
abominable  trade.  At  the  moment  when  God  in  his  mercy  has 
blessed  the  Christian  world  with  a  universal  peace,  there  is  rea 
son  to  fear,  that,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  Christian  name  and  charac 
ter,  new  efforts  are  making  for  the  extension  of  this  trade  by  sub 
jects  and  citizens  of  Christian  states,  in  whose  hearts  there  dwell 
no  sentiments  of  humanity  or  of  justice,  and  over  whom  neither 
the  fear  of  God  nor  the  fear  of  man  exercises  a  control.  In  the 
sight  of  our  law,  the  African  slave-trader  is  a  pirate  and  a  felon ; 
and  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  an  offender  far  beyond  the  ordinary 
depth  of  human  guilt.  There  is  no  brighter  page  of  our  history, 
than  that  which  records  the  measures  which  have  been  adopted 
by  the  government  at  an  early  day,  and  at  different  times  since, 
for  the  suppression  of  this  traffic ;  and  I  would  call  on  all  the 
true  sons  of  New  England  to  cooperate  with  the  laws  of  man, 
and  the  justice  of  Heaven.  If  there  be,  within  the  extent  of  our 
knowledge  or  influence,  any  participation  in  this  traffic,  let  us 
pledge  ourselves  here,  upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth,  to  extirpate 
and  destroy  it.  It  is  not  fit  that  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims  should 
bear  the  shame  longer.  I  hear  the  sound  of  the  hammer,  I  see 

*  In  reference  to  the  opposition  of  the  Colonies  to  the  slave-trade,  see  a 
representation  of  the  Board  of  Trade  to  the  House  of  Lords,  23d  January. 
1733-4. 


46  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  smoke  of  the  furnaces  where  manacles  and  fetters  are  still 
forged-  for  human  limbs.  I  see  the  visages  of  those  who  by 
stealth  and  at  midnight  labor  in  this  work  of  hell,  foul  and 
dark,  as  may  become  the  artificers  of  such  instruments  of  mis 
ery  and  torture.  Let  that  spot  be  purified,  or  let  it  cease  to  be 
of  New  England.  Let  it  be  purified,  or  let  it  be  set  aside  from 
the  Christian  world ;  let  it  be  put  out  of  the  circle  of  human 
sympathies  and  human  regards,  and  let  civilized  man  henceforth 
have  no  communion  with  it. 

T  would  invoke  those  who  fill  the  seats  of  justice,  and  all  who 
minister  at  her  altar,  that  they  execute  the  wholesome  and  ne 
cessary  severity  of  the  law.  I  invoke  the  ministers  of  our  relig 
ion,  that  they  proclaim  its  denunciation  of  these  crimes,  and 
add  its  solemn  sanctions  to  the  authority  of  human  laws.  If 
the  pulpit  be  silent  whenever  or  wherever  there  may  be  a  sin 
ner  bloody  with  this  guilt  within  the  hearing  of  its  voice,  the 
pulpit  is  false  to  its  trust.  I  call  on  the  fair  merchant,  who  has 
reaped  his  harvest  upon  the  seas,  that  he  assist  in  scourging 
from  those  seas  the  worst  pirates  that  ever  infested  them.  That 
ocean,  which  seems  to  wave  with  a  gentle  magnificence  to  waft 
the  burden  of  an  honest  commerce,  and  to  roll  along  its  treas 
ures  with  a  conscious  pride,  —  that  ocean,  which  hardy  industry 
regards,  even  when  the  winds  have  ruffled  its  surface,  as  a  field 
of  grateful  toil, — what  is  it  to  the  victim  of  this  oppression,  when 
he  is  brought  to  its  shores,  and  looks  forth  upon  it,  for  the  first 
time,  loaded  with  chains,  and  bleeding  with  stripes  ?  What  is 
it  to  him  but  a  wide-spread  prospect  of  suffering,  anguish,  and 
death  ?  Nor  do  the  skies  smile  longer,  nor  is  the  air  longer  fra 
grant  to  him.  The  sun  is  cast  down  from  heaven.  An  inhu 
man  and  accursed  traffic  has  cut  him  off  in  his  manhood,  or  in 
his  youth,  from  every  enjoyment  belonging  to  his  being,  and 
every  blessing  which  his  Creator  intended  for  him. 

The  Christian  communities  send  forth  their  emissaries  of  re 
ligion  and  letters,  who  stop,  here  and  there,  along  the  coast  of 
the  vast  continent  of  Africa,  and  with  painful  and  tedious  efforts 
make  some  almost  imperceptible  progress  in  the  communication 
of  knowledge,  and  in  the  general  improvement  of  the  natives 
who  are  immediately  about  them.  Not  thus  slow  and  imper 
ceptible  is  the  transmission  of  the  vices  and  bad  passions  which 
the  subjects  of  Christian  states  carry  to  the  land.  The  slave- 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  47 

trade  having  touched  the  coast,  its  influence  and  its  evils  spread, 
like  a  pestilence,  over  the  whole  continent,  making  savage  wars 
more  savage  and  more  frequent,  and  adding  new  and  fierce  pas 
sions  to  the  contests  of  barbarians. 

I  pursue  this  topic  no  further,  except  agmn  to  say,  that  all 
Christendom,  being  now  blessed  with  peace,  is  bound  by  every 
thing  which  belongs  to  its  character,  and  to  the  character  of  the 
present  age,  to  put  a  stop  to  this  inhuman  and  disgraceful 
traffic. 

We  are  bound,  not  only  to  maintain  the  general  principles  of 
public  liberty,  but  to  support  also  those  existing  forms  of  gov 
ernment  which  have  so  well  secured  its  enjoyment,  and  so  high 
ly  promoted  the  public  prosperity.  It  is  now  more  than  thirty 
years  that  these  States  have  been  united  under  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  whatever  fortune  may  await  them  hereafter, 
it  is  impossible  that  this  period  of  their  history  should  not  be 
regarded  as  distinguished  by  signal  prosperity  and  success. 
They  must  be  sanguine  indeed,  who  can  hope  for  benefit  from 
change.  Whatever  division  of  the  public  judgment  may  have 
existed  in  relation  to  particular  measures  of  the  government,  all 
must  agree,  one  should  think,  in  the  opinion,  that  in  its  general 
course  it  has  been  eminently  productive  of  public  happiness. 
Its  most  ardent  friends  could  not  well  have  hoped  from  it  more 
than  it  has  accomplished ;  and  those  who  disbelieved  or  doubt 
ed  ought  to  feel  less  concern  about  predictions  which  the  event 
has  not  verified,  than  pleasure  in  the  good  which  has  been  ob 
tained.  Whoever  shall  hereafter  write  this  part  of  our  history, 
although  he  may  see  occasional  errors  or  defects,  will  be  able  to 
record  no  great  failure  in  the  ends  and  objects  of  government. 
Still  less  will  he  be  able  to  record  any  series  of  lawless  and 
despotic  acts,  or  any  successful  usurpation.  His  page  will  con 
tain  no  exhibition  of  provinces  depopulated,  of  civil  authority 
habitually  trampled  down  by  military  power,  or  of  a  community 
crushed  by  the  burden  of  taxation.  He  will  speak,  rather,  of 
public  liberty  protected,  and  public  happiness  advanced;  of 
increased  revenue,  and  population  augmented  beyond  all  exam 
ple  ;  of  the  growth  of  commerce,  manufactures,  and  the  arts ; 
and  of  that  happy  condition,  in  which  the  restraint  and  coercion 
of  government  are  almost  invisible  and  imperceptible,  and  its 
influence  felt  only  in  the  benefits  which  it  confers.  We  can 


48  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

entertain  no  better  wish  for  our  country,  than  that  this  govern 
ment  may  be  preserved ;  nor  have  a  clearer  duty  than  to  main 
tain  and  support  it  in  the  full  exercise  of  all  its  just  constitu 
tional  powers. 

The  cause  of  science  and  literature  also  imposes  upon  us  an 
important  and  delicate  trust.  The  wealth  and  population  of 
the  country  are  now  so  far  advanced,  as  to  authorize  the  ex 
pectation  of  a  correct  literature  and  a  well  formed  taste,  as  well 
as  respectable  progress  in  the  abstruse  sciences.  The  country 
has  risen  from  a  state  of  colonial  subjection ;  it  has  established 
an  independent  government,  and  is  now  in  the  undisturbed 
enjoyment  of  peace  and  political  security.  The  elements  of 
knowledge  are  universally  diffused,  and  the  reading  portion  of 
the  community  is  large.  Let  us  hope  that  the  present  may  be  an 
auspicious  era  of  literature.  If,  almost  on  the  day  of  their  land 
ing,  our  ancestors  founded  schools  and  endowed  colleges,  what 
obligations  do  not  rest  upon  us,  living  under  circumstances  so 
much  more  favorable  both  for  providing  and  for  using  the  means 
of  education  ?  Literature  becomes  free  institutions.  It  is  the 
graceful  ornament  of  civil  liberty,  and  a  happy  restraint  on  the 
asperities  which  political  controversies  sometimes  occasion.  Just 
taste  is  not  only  an  embellishment  of  society,  but  it  rises  almost 
to  the  rank  of  the  virtues,  and  diffuses  positive  good  throughout 
the  whole  extent  of  its  influence.  There  is  a  connection  be 
tween  right  feeling  and  right  principles,  and  truth  in  taste  is 
allied  with  truth  in  morality.  With  nothing  in  our  past  his 
tory  to  discourage  us,  and  with  something  in  our  present  con 
dition  and  prospects  to  animate  us,  let  us  hope,  that,  as  it  is 
our  fortune  to  live  in  an  age  when  we  may  behold  a  wonderful 
advancement  of  the  country  in  all  its  other  great  interests,  we 
may  see  also  equal  progress  and  success  attend  the  cause  of 
letters. 

Finally,  let  us  not  forget  the  religious  character  of  our  origin. 
Our  fathers  were  brought  hither  by  their  high  veneration  for  the 
Christian  religion.  They  journeyed  by  its  light,  and  labored  in 
its  hope.  They  sought  to  incorporate  its  principles  with  the 
elements  of  their  society,  and  to  diffuse  its  influence  through 
all  their  institutions,  civil,  political,  or  literary.  Let  us  cherish 
these  sentiments,  and  extend  this  influence  still  more  widely ;  in 
the  full  conviction,  that  that  is  the  happiest  society  which  par- 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  49 

takes  in  the  highest  degree  of  the  mild  and  peaceful  spirit  of 
Christianity. 

The  hours  of  this  day  are  rapidly  flying,  and  this  occasion 
will  soon  be  passed.  Neither  we  nor  our  children  can  expect  to 
behold  its  return.  They  are  in  the  distant  regions  of  futurity, 
they  exist  only  in  the  all-creating  power  of  God,  who  shall 
stand  here  a  hundred  years  hence,  to  trace,  through'  us,  their 
descent  from  the  Pilgrims,  and  to  survey,  as  we  have  now 
surveyed,  the  progress  of  their  country,  during  the  lapse  of  a 
century.  We  would  anticipate  their  concurrence  with  us  in 
our  sentiments  of  deep  regard  for  our  common  ancestors.  We 
would  anticipate  and  partake  the  pleasure  with  which  they  will 
then  recount  the  steps  of  New  England's  advancement.  On 
the  morning  of  that  day,  although  it  will  not  disturb  us  in  our 
repose,  the  voice  of  acclamation  and  gratitude,  commencing  on 
the  Rock  of  Plymouth,  shall  be  transmitted  through  millions  of 
the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  till  it  lose  itself  in  the  murmurs  of  the 
Pacific  seas. 

We  would  leave  for  the  consideration  of  those  who  shall  then 
occupy  our  places,  some  proof  that  we  hold  the  blessings  trans 
mitted  from  our  fathers  in  just  estimation  ;  some  proof  of  our 
attachment  to  the  cause  of  good  government,  and  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty ;  some  proof  of  a  sincere  and  ardent  desire  to 
promote  every  thing  which  may  enlarge  the  understandings  and 
improve  the  hearts  of  men.  And  when,  from  the  long  distance 
of  a  hundred  years,  they  shall  look  back  upon  us,  they  shall 
know,  at  least,  that  we  possessed  affections,  which,  running 
backward  and  warming  with  gratitude  for  what  our  ancestors 
have  done  for  our  happiness,  run  forward  also  to  our  posterity, 
and  meet  them  with  cordial  salutation,  ere  yet  they  have  ar 
rived  on  the  shore  of  being. 

Advance,  then,  ye  future  generations !  We  would  hail  you, 
as  you  rise  in  your  long  succession,  to  fill  the  places  which  we 
now  fill,  and  to  taste  the  blessings  of  existence  where  we  are 
passing,  and  soon  shall  have  passed,  our  own  human  duration. 
We  bid  you  welcome  to  this  pleasant  land  of  the  fathers.  We 
bid  you  welcome  to  the  healthful  skies  and  the  verdant  fields  of 
New  England.  We  greet  your  accession  to  the  great  inherit 
ance  which  we  have  enjoyed.  We  welcome  you  to  the  bless 
ings  of  good  government  and  religious  liberty.  We  welcome 

VOL.  i.  5 


50  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

you  to  the  treasures  of  science  and  the  delights  of  learning. 
We  welcome  you  to  the  transcendent  sweets  of  domestic  Life, 
to  the  happiness  of  kindred,  and  parents,  and  children.  We 
welcome  you  to  the  immeasurable  blessings  of  rational  exist 
ence,  the  immortal  hope  of  Christianity,  and  the  light  of  ever 
lasting  truth! 


NOTES. 


NOTE   A.     Page  8. 

THE  allusion  in  the  Discourse  is  to  the  large  historical  painting  of  the 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  executed  by  Henry  Sargent,  Esq., 
of  Boston,  and,  with  great  liberality,  presented  by  him  to  the  Pilgrim  Soci 
ety.  It  appea.red  in  their  hall  (of  which  it  forms  the  chief  ornament)  for 
the  first  time  at  the  celebration  of  1824.  It  represents  the  principal  per 
sonages  of  the  company  at  the  moment  of  landing,  with  the  Indian  Samoset, 
who  approaches  them  with  a  friendly  welcome.  A  very  competent  judge, 
himself  a  distinguished  artist,  the  late  venerable  Colonel  Trumbull,  has 
pronounced  that  this  painting  has  great  merit.  An  interesting  account 
of  it  will  be  found  in  Dr.  Thacher's  History  of  Plymouth,  pp.  249  and  257. 

An  historical  painting,  by  Robert  N.  Weir,  Esq.,  of  the  largest  size, 
representing  the  embarkation  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Delft-Haven,  in  Hol 
land,  and  executed  by  order  of  Congress,  fills  one  of  the  panels  of  the 
Rotunda  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  The  moment  chosen  by  the 
artist  for  the  action  of  the  picture  is  that  in  which  the  venerable  pastor 
Robinson,  with  tears,  and  benedictions,  and  prayers  to  Heaven,  dismisses 
the  beloved  members  of  his  little  flock  to  the  perils  and  the  hopes  of  their 
great  enterprise.  The  characters  of  the  personages  introduced  are  indi 
cated  with  discrimination  and  power,  and  the  accessories  of  the  work 
marked  with  much  taste  and  skill.  It  is  a  painting  of  distinguished  his 
torical  interest  and  of  great  artistic  merit. 

The  "  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  "  has  also  been  made  the  subject  of  a 
very  interesting  painting  by  Mr.  Flagg,  intended  to  represent  the  deep 
religious  feeling  which  so  strikingly  characterized  the  first  settlers  of  New 
England.  With  this  object  in  view,  the  central  figure  is  that  of  Elder 
Brewster.  It  is  a  picture  of  cabinet  size,  and  is  in  possession  of  a  gentle 
man  of  New  Haven,  descended  from  Elder  Brewster,  and  of  that  name. 


NOTE  B.     Page  38. 

As  the  opinion  of  contemporaneous  thinkers  on  this  important  subject 
cannot  fail  to  interest  the  general  reader,  it  is  deemed  proper  to  insert 


52  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

here  the  following  extract  from  a  letter,  written  in  1849,  to  show  how 
powerfully  the  truths  uttered  in  1820,  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  as  it 
were,  impressed  themselves  upon  certain  minds,  and  how  closely  the 
verification  of  the  prediction  has  been  watched. 

"  I  do  not  remember  any  political  prophecy,  founded  on  the  spirit  of  a 
wide  and  far-reaching  statesmanship,  that  has  been  so  remarkably  ful 
filled  as  the  one  made  by  Mr.  Webster,  in  his  Discourse  delivered  at  Ply 
mouth  in  1820,  on  the  effect  which  the  laws  of  succession  to  property  in 
France,  then  in  operation,  would  be  likely  to  produce  on  the  forms  and 
working  of  the  French  government.  But  to  understand  what  he  said, 
and  what  he  foresaw,  I  must  explain  a  little  what  had  been  the  course  of 
legislation  in  France  on  which  his  predictions  were  founded. 

"  Before  the  Revolution  of  1789,  there  had  been  a  great  accumulation 
of  the  landed  property  of  the  country,  and,  indeed,  of  all  its  property,  — 
by  means  of  laws  of  entail,  majorats,  and  other  legal  contrivances,  —  in 
the  hands  of  the  privileged  classes ;  chiefly  in  those  of  the  nobility  and 
the  clergy.  The  injury  and  injustice  done  by  long  continued  legislation 
in  this  direction  were  obviously  great ;  and  it  was  not,  perhaps,  unnatu 
ral,  that  the  opposite  course  to  that  which  had  brought  on  the  mischief 
should  be  deemed  the  best  one  to  cure  it.  At  any  rate,  such  was  the 
course  taken. 

"  In  1791  a  law  was  passed,  preventing  any  man  from  having  any  in 
terest  beyond  the  period  of  his  own  life  in  any  of  his  property,  real,  per 
sonal,  or  mixed,  and  distributing  all  his  possessions  for  him,  immediately 
after  his  death,  among  his  children,  in  equal  shares,  or  if  he  left  no  chil 
dren,  then  among  his  next  of  kin,  on  the  same  principle.  This  law,  with 
a  slight  modification,  made  under  the  influence  of  Robespierre,  was  in 
force  till  1800.  But  the  period  was  entirely  revolutionary,  and  probably 
quite  as  much  property  changed  hands  from  violence  and  the  conse 
quences  of  violence,  during  the  nine  years  it  continued,  as  was  transmit 
ted  by  the  laws  that  directly  controlled  its  succession. 

"  With  the  coming  in  of  Bonaparte,  however,  there  was  established  a 
new  order  of  things,  which  has  continued,  with  little  modification,  ever 
since,  and  has  had  its  full  share  in  working  out  the  great  changes  in 
French  society  which  we  now  witness.  A  few  experiments  were  first 
made,  and  then  the  great  Civil  Code,  often  called  the  Code  Napoleon, 
was  adopted.  This  was  in  3804.  By  this  remarkable  code,  which  is 
still  in  force,  a  man,  if  he  has  but  one  child,  can  give  away  by  his  last 
will,  as  he  pleases,  half  of  his  property, —  the  law  insuring  the  other  half 
to  the  child  ;  if  he  has  two  children,  then  he  can  so  give  away  only  one 
\hird,  —  the  law  requiring  the  other  two  thirds  to  be  given  equally  to  the 
two  children  ;  if  three,  then  only  one  fourth,  under  similar  conditions  ;  but 


FIRST  SETTLEMENT   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  5J, 

if  he  has  a  greater  number,  it  restricts  the  rights  of  the  parent  more  and 
more,  and  makes  it  more  and  more  difficult  for  him  to  distribute  his  prop 
erty  according  to  his  own  judgment ;  the  restrictions  embarrassing  him 
even  in  his  lifetime. 

"  The  consequences  of  such  laws  are,  from  their  nature,  very  slow 
ly  developed.  When  Mr.  Webster  spoke  in  1820,  the  French  code 
had  been  in  operation  sixteen  years,  and  similar  principles  had  prevailed 
for  nearly  a  generation.  But  still  its  wide  results  were  not  even  sus 
pected.  Those  who  had  treated  the  subject  at  all  supposed  that  the  ten 
dency  was  to  break  up  the  great  estates  in  France,  and  make  the  larger 
number  of  the  holders  of  small  estates  more  accessible  to  the  influence  of 
the  government,  then  a  limited  monarchy,  and  so  render  it  stronger  and 
more  despotic. 

"  Mr.  Webster  held  a  different  opinion.  He  said, '  In  respect,  how 
ever,  to  the  recent  law  of  succession  in  France,  to  which  I  have  al 
luded,  I  would,  presumptuously  perhaps,  hazard  a  conjecture,  that,  if  the 
government  do  not  change  the  law,  the  law  in  half  a  century  will  change 
the  government ;  and  that  this  change  will  be,  not  in  favor  of  the  power 
of  the  crown,  as  some  European  writers  have  supposed,  but  against  it, 
Those  writers  only  reason  upon  what  they  think  correct  general  princi 
ples,  in  relation  to  this  subject.  They  acknowledge  a  want  of  experience. 
Here  we  have  had  that  experience  ;  and  we  know  that  a  multitude  of 
small  proprietors,  acting  with  intelligence,  and  that  enthusiasm  which  a 
common  cause  inspires,  constitute  not  only  a  formidable,  but  an  invinci 
ble  power.' 

"  In  less  than  six  years  after  Mr.  Webster  uttered  this  remarkable  pre 
diction,  the  king  of  France  himself,  at  the  opening  of  the  Legislative 
Chambers,  thus  strangely  echoed  it :  — '  Legislation  ought  to  provide,  by 
successive  improvements,  for  all  the  wants  of  society.  The  progressive 
partitioning  of  landed  estates,  essentially  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  a  mo 
narchical  government,  would  enfeeble  the  guaranties  which  the  charter 
has  given  to  my  throne  and  to  my  subjects.  Measures  will  be  proposed 
to  you,  gentlemen,  to  establish  the  consistency  which  ought  to  exist  be 
tween  the  political  law  and  the  civil  law,  and  to  preserve  the  patrimony 
of  families,  without  restricting  the  liberty  of  disposing  of  one's  property. 
The  preservation  of  families  is  connected  with,  and  affords  a  guaranty  to, 
political  stability,  which  is  the  first  want  of  states,  and  which  is  especially 
that  of  France,  after  so  many  vicissitudes.' 

"  Still,  the  results  to  which  such  subdivision  and  comminution  of  prop 
erty  tended  were  not  foreseen  even  in  France.  The  Revolution  of  1830 
came,  and  revealed  a  part  of  them ;  for  that  revolution  was  made  by  the 
influence  of  men  possessing  very  moderate  estates,  who  believed  that  the 
guaranties  of  a  government  like  that  of  the  elder  branch  of  the  Bourbons 
5* 


54  FIRST   SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

were  not  sufficient  for  their  safety.  But  when  the  revolution  was  made, 
and  the  younger  branch  of  the  Bourbons  reigned  instead  of  the  elder, 
the  laws  for  the  descent  of  property  continued  to  be  the  same,  and  the 
subdivision  went  on  as  if  it  were  an  admitted  benefit  to  society. 

"  In  consequence  of  this,  in  1844  it  was  found  that  there  were  in  France 
at  least  five  millions  and  a  half  of  families,  or  about  twenty-seven  millions 
of  souls,  who  were  proprietary  families,  and  that  of  these  about  four  mil 
lions  of  families  had  each  less  than  nine  English  acres  to  the  family  on 
the  average.  Of  course,  a  vast  majority  of  these  twenty-seven  millions 
of  persons,  though  they  might  be  interested  in  some  small  portion  of  the 
soil,  were  really  poor,  and  multitudes  of  them  were  dependent. 

"  Now,  therefore,  the  results  began  to  appear  in  a  practical  form.  One 
third  of  all  the  rental  of  France  was  discovered  to  be  absolutely  mort 
gaged,  and  another  third  was  swallowed  up  by  other  encumbrances,  leav 
ing  but  one  third  free  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  its  owners.  In  other 
words,  a  great  proportion  of  the  people  of  France  were  embarrassed  and 
poor,  and  a  great  proportion  of  the  remainder  were  fast  becoming. so. 

"  Such  a  state  of  things  produced,  of  course,  a  wide-spread  social  unea 
siness.  Part  of  this  uneasiness  was  directed  against  the  existing  govern 
ment  ;  another  and  more  formidable  portion  was  directed  against  all 
government,  and  against  the  very  institution  of  property.  The  convul 
sion  of  1848  followed ;  France  is  still  unsettled ;  and  Mr.  Webster's 
prophecy  seems  still  to  be  in  the  course  of  a  portentous  fulfilment." 

In  the  London  Quarterly  Review  for  1846  there  is  an  interesting  dis 
cussion  on  so  much  of  the  matter  as  relates  to  the  subdivision  of  real 
estate  for  agricultural  purposes  in  France,  as  far  as  it  had  then  advanced, 
and  from  which  many  of  the  facts  here  alluded  to  are  taken. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


As  early  as  1776,  some  steps  were  taken  toward  the  commemoration 
of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  and  the  fall  of  General  Warren,  who  was 
buried  upon  the  hill  the  day  after  the  action.  The  Massachusetts  Lodge 
of  Masons,  over  which  he  presided,  applied  to  the  provisional  government 
of  Massachusetts,  for  permission  to  take  up  his  remains  and  to  bury  them 
with  the  usual  solemnities.  The  council  granted  this  request,  on  condition 
that  it  should  be  carried  into  effect  in  such  a  manner  that  the  government 
of  the  Colony  might  have  an  opportunity  to  erect  a  monument  to  his 
memory.  A  funeral  procession  was  had,  and  a  Eulogy  on  General  War 
ren  was  delivered  by  Perez  Morton,  but  no  measures  were  taken  toward 
building  a  monument. 

A  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  on  the 
8th  of  April,  1777,  directing  that  monuments  should  be  erected  to  the  mem 
ory  of  General  Warren,  in  Boston,  and  of  General  Mercer,  at  Fredericks- 
burg  ;  but  this  resolution  has  remained  to  the  present  time  unexecuted. 

On  the  1 1th  of  November,  1794,  a  committee  was  appointed  by  King 
Solomon's  Lodge,  at  Charlestown,*  to  take  measures  for  the  erection  of  a 
monument  to  the  memory  of  General  Joseph  Warren  at  the  expense  of 
the  Lodge.  This  resolution  was  promptly  carried  into  effect.  The  land 
for  this  purpose  was  presented  to  the  Lodge  by  the  Hon.  James  Russell, 
of  Charlestown,  and  it  was  dedicated  with  appropriate  ceremonies  on  the 
2d  of  December,  1794.  It  was  a  wooden  pillar  of  the  Tuscan  order,  eigh 
teen  feet  in  height,  raised  on  a  pedestal  eight  feet  square,  and  of  an  eleva 
tion  of  ten  feet  from  the  ground.  The  pillar  was  surmounted  by  a  gilt  urn. 
An  appropriate  inscription  was  placed  on  the  south  side  of  the  pedestal. 

In  February,  1818,  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
was  appointed  to  consider  the  expediency  of  building  a  monument  of 
American  marble  to  the  memory  of  General  Warren,  but  this  proposal 
was  not  carried  into  effect. 

As  the  half-century  from  the  date  of  the  battle  drew  toward  a  close,  a 
stronger  feeling  of  the  duty  of  commemorating  it  began  to  be  awakened 
in  the  community.  Among  those  who  from  the  first  manifested  the 

*  General  Warren,  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  was  Grand  Master  of  the  Ma 
sonic  Lodges  in  America. 


58  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

greatest  interest  in  the  subject,  was  the  late  William  Tudor,  Esq.  He 
expressed  the  wish,  in  a  letter  still  preserved,  to  see  upon  the  battle 
ground  "  the  noblest  monument  in  the  world,"  and  he  was  so  ardent  and 
persevering  in  urging  the  project,  that  it  has  been  stated  that  he  first  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  it.  The  steps  taken  in  execution  of  the  project,  from 
the  earliest  private  conferences  among  the  gentlemen  first  engaged  in  it 
to  its  final  completion,  are  accurately  sketched  by  Mr.  Richard  Frothing- 
ham,  Jr.,  in  his  valuable  History  of  the  Siege  of  Boston.  All  the  material 
facts  contained  in  this  note  are  derived  from  his  chapter  on  the  Bunker 
Hill  Monument.  After  giving  an  account  of  the  organization  of  the  socie 
ty,  the  measures  adopted  for  the  collection  of  funds,  and  the  deliberations 
on  the  form  of  the  monument,  Mr.  Frothingham  proceeds  as  follows  :  — 

"  It  was  at  this  stage  of  the  enterprise  that  the  directors  proposed  to  lay 
the  corner-stone  of  the  monument,  and  ground  was  broken  (June  7th)  for 
this  purpose.  As  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  liberality  and  patriotism  of  King 
Solomon's  Lodge,  they  invited  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Massachusetts  to  perform  the  ceremony.  They  also  invited  General  La 
fayette  to  accompany  the  President  of  the  Association,  Hon.  Daniel  Web 
ster,  and  assist  in  it. 

"  This  celebration  was  unequalled  in  magnificence  by  any  thing  of  the 
kind  that  had  been  seen  in  New  England.  The  morning  proved  propi 
tious.  The  air  was  cool,  the  sky  was  clear,  and  timely  showers  the  pre 
vious  day  had  brightened  the  vesture  of  nature  into  its  loveliest  hue.  De 
lighted  thousands  flocked  into  Boston  to  bear  a  part  in  the  proceedings,  or 
to  witness  the  spectacle.  At  about  ten  o'clock  a  procession  moved  from 
the  State  House  towards  Bunker  Hill.  The  military,  in  their  fine  uni 
forms,  formed  the  van.  About  two  hundred  veterans  of  the  Revolution, 
of  whom  forty  were  survivors  of  the  battle,  rode  in  barouches  next  to  the 
escort.  These  venerable  men,  the  relics  of  a  past  generation,  with  ema 
ciated  frames,  tottering  limbs,  and  trembling  voices,  constituted  a  touching 
spectacle.  Some  wore,  as  honorable  decorations,  their  old  fighting  equip 
ments,  and  some  bore  the  scars  of  still  more  honorable  wounds.  Glis 
tening  eyes  constituted  their  answer  to  the  enthusiastic  cheers  of  the 
grateful  multitudes  who  lined  their  pathway  and  cheered  their  progress. 
To  this  patriot  band  succeeded  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association. 
Then  the  Masonic  fraternity,  in  their  splendid  regalia,  thousands  in  num 
ber.  Then  Lafayette,  continually  welcomed  by  tokens  of  love  and  grat 
itude,  and  the  invited  guests.  Then  a  long  array  of  societies,  with  their 
various  badges  and  banners.  It  was  a  splendid  procession,  and  of  such 
length  that  the  front  nearly  reached  Charlestovvn  Bridge  ere  the  rear  had 
left  Boston  Common.  It  proceeded  to  Breed's  Hill,  where  the  Grand 
Master  of  the  Freemasons,  the  President  of  the  Monument  Association, 
and  General  Lafayette,  performed  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  corner 
stone,  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  concourse  of  people." 

The  procession  then  moved  to  a  spacious  amphitheatre  on  the  northern 
declivity  of  the  hill,  when  the  following  address  was  delivered  by  Mr. 
Webster,  in  the  presence  of  as  great  a  multitude  as  was  ever  perhaps 
assembled  within  the  sound  of  a  human  voice. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT/ 


THIS  uncounted  multitude  before  me  and  around  me  proves 
the  feeling  which  the  occasion  has  excited.  These  thousands 
of  human  faces,  glowing  with  sympathy  and  joy,  and  from  the 
impulses  of  a  common  gratitude  turned  reverently  to  heaven  in 
this  spacious  temple  of  the  firmament,  proclaim  that  the  day, 
the  place,  and  the  purpose  of  our  assembling  have  made  a  deep 
impression  on  our  hearts. 

If,  indeed,  there  be  any  thing  in  local  association  fit  to  affect 
the  mind  of  man,  we  need  not  strive  to  repress  the  emotions 
which  agitate  us  here.  We  are  among  the  sepulchres  of  our 
fathers.  We  are  on  ground,  distinguished  by  their  valor,  their 
constancy,  and  the  shedding  of  their  blood.  We  are  here,  not 
to  fix  an  uncertain  date  in  our  annals,  nor  to  draw  into  notice 
an  obscure  and  unknown  spot.  If  our  humble  purpose  had 
never  been  conceived,  if  we  ourselves  had  never  been  born,  the 
17th  of  June,  1775,  would  have  been  a  day  on  which  all  subse 
quent  history  would  have  poured  its  light,  and  the  eminence 
where  we  stand  a  point  of  attraction  to  the  eyes  of  successive 
generations.  But  we  are  Americans.  We  live  in  what  may 
be  called  the  early  age  of  this  great  continent ;  and  we  know 
that  our  posterity,  through  all  time,  are  here  to  enjoy  and  suffer 
the  allotments  of  humanity.  We  see  before  us  a  probable  train 
of  great  events ;  we  know  that  our  own  fortunes  have  been  hap 
pily  cast ;  and  it  is  natural,  therefore,  that  we  should  be  moved 
by  the  contemplation  of  occurrences  which  have  guided  our  des 
tiny  before  many  of  us  were  born,  and  settled  the  condition  in 
which  we  should  pass  that  portion  of  our  existence  which  God 
allows  to  men  on  earth. 

*  An  Address  delivered  at  the,  Laying-  of  the  Corner-stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  at  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1825. 


60  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

We  do  not  read  even  of  the  discovery  of  this  continent,  with 
out  feeling  something  of  a  personal  interest  in  the  event ;  with 
out  being  reminded  how  much  it  has  affected  our  own  fortunes 
and  our  own  existence.  It  would  be  still  more  unnatural  for  us, 
therefore,  than  for  others,  to  contemplate  with  unaffected  minds 
that  interesting,  I  may  say  that  most  touching  and  pathetic 
scene,  when  the  great  discoverer  of  America  stood  on  the  deck 
of  his  shattered  bark,  the  shades  of  night  falling  on  the  sea,  yet 
no  man  sleeping ;  tossed  on  the  billows  of  an  unknown  ocean, 
yet  the  stronger  billows  of  alternate  hope  and  despair  tossing 
his  own  troubled  thoughts;  extending  forward  his  harassed 
frame,  straining  westward  his  anxious  and  eager  eyes,  till  Heav 
en  at  last  granted  him  a  moment  of  rapture  and  ecstasy,  in 
blessing  his  vision  with  the  sight  of  the  unknown  world. 

Nearer  to  our  times,  more  closely  connected  with  our  fates, 
and  therefore  still  more  interesting  to  our  feelings  and  affections, 
is  the  settlement  of  our  own  country  by  colonists  from  Eng 
land.  We  cherish  every  memorial  of  these  worthy  ancestors ; 
we  celebrate  their  patience  and  fortitude ;  we  admire  their  dar 
ing  enterprise;  we  teach  our  children  to  venerate  their  piety; 
and  we  are  justly  proud  of  being  descended  from  men  who 
have  set  the  world  an  example  of  founding  civil  institutions  on 
the  great  and  united  principles  of  human  freedom  and  human 
knowledge.  To  us,  their  children,  the  story  of  their  labors  and 
sufferings  can  never  be  without  its  interest.  We  shall  not  stand 
unmoved  on  the  shore  of  Plymouth,  while  the  sea  continues  to 
wash  it ;  nor  will  our  brethren  in  another  early  and  ancient  Col 
ony  forget  the  place  of  its  first  establishment,  till  their  river 
shall  cease  to  flow  by  it.*  No  vigor  of  youth,  no  maturity  of 
manhood,  will  lead  the  nation  to  forget  the  spots  where  its  in 
fancy  was  cradled  and  defended. 

But  the  great  event  in  the  history  of  the  continent,  which  we 
are  now  met  here  to  commemorate,  that  prodigy  of  modern 


*  An  interesting  account  of  the  voyage  of  the  early  emigrants  to  the  Maryland 
Colony,  and  of  its  settlement,  is  given  in  the  official  report  of  Father  White,  written 
probably  within  the  first  month  after  the  landing  at  St.  Mary's.  The  original 
Latin  manuscript  is  still  preserved  among  the  archives  of  the  Jesuits,  at  Rome. 
The  "Ark"  and  the  "Dove"  are  remembered  with  scarcely  less  interest  by 
the  descendants  ofrthe  sister  Colony,  than  is  the  "  Mayflower  "  in  New  England, 
which,  thirteen  years  earlier,  at  the  same  season  of  the  year,  bore  thither  the 
Pilgrim  Fa  hers. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  61 

times,  at  once  the  wonder  and  the  blessing  of  the  world,  is  the 
American  Revolution.  In  a  day  of  extraordinary  prosperity  and 
happiness,  of  high  national  honor,  distinction,  and  power,  we 
are  brought  together,  in  this  place,  by  our  love  of  country,  by 
our  admiration  of  exalted  character,  by  our  gratitude  for  signal 
services  and  patriotic  devotion. 

The  Society  whose  organ  I  am*  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  rearing  some  honorable  and  durable  monument  to  the  mem 
ory  of  the  early  friends  of  American  Independence.  They  have 
thought,  that  for  this  object  no  time  could  be  more  propitious 
than  the  present  prosperous  and  peaceful  period ;  that  no  place 
could  claim  preference  over  this  memorable  spot ;  and  that  no 
day  could  be  more  auspicious  to  the  undertaking,  than  the  an 
niversary  of  the  battle  which  was  here  fought.  The  foundation 
of  that  monument  we  have  now  laid.  With  -solemnities  suited 
to  the  occasion,  with  prayers  to  Almighty  God  for  his  blessing 
and  in  the  midst  of  this  cloud  of  witnesses,  we  have  begun  the 
work.  We  trust  it  will  be  prosecuted,  and  that,  springing  from 
a  broad  foundation,  rising  high  in  massive  solidity  and  una 
dorned  grandeur,  it  may  remain  as  long  as  Heaven  permits  the 
works  of  man  to  last,  a  fit  emblem,  both  of  the  events  in  mem 
ory  of  which  it  is  raised,  and  of  the  gratitude  of  those  who  have 
reared  it. 

We  know,  indeed,  that  the  record  of  illustrious  actions  is 
most  safely  deposited  in  the  universal  remembrance  of  mankind. 
We  know,  that  if  we  could  cause  this  structure  to  ascend,  not 
only  till  it  reached  the  skies,  but  till  it  pierced  them,  its  broad 
surfaces  could  still  contain  but  part  of  that  which,  in  an  age  of 
knowledge,  hath  already  been  spread  over  the  earth,  and  which 
history  charges  itself  with  making  known  to  all  future  times. 
We  know  that  no  inscription  on  entablatures  less  broad  than 
the  earth  itself  can  carry  information  of  the  events  we  com 
memorate  where  it  has  not  already  gone;  and  that  no  struc 
ture,  which  shall  not  outlive  the  duration  of  letters  and  knowl 
edge  among  men,  can  prolong  the  memorial.  But  our  object  is, 
by  this  edifice,  to  show  our  own  deep  sense  of  the  value  and  im 
portance  of  the  achievements  of  our  ancestors ;  and,  by  present- 

*  Mr.  Webster  was  at  this  time  President  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  As 
sociation,  chosen  on  the  decease  of  Governor  John  Brooks,  tbe  first  President 

VOL.  I.  6 


62  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

ing  this  work  of  gratitude  to  the  eye,  to  keep  alive  similar  sen 
timents,  and  to  foster  a  constant  regard  for  the  principles  of  the 
Revolution.  Human  beings  are  composed,  not  of  reason  only, 
but  of  imagination  also,  and  sentiment;  and  that  is  neither 
wasted  nor  misapplied  which  is  appropriated  to  the  purpose  of 
giving  right  direction  to  sentiments,  and  opening  proper  springs 
of  feeling  in  the  heart.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  our  object 
is  to  perpetuate  national  hostility,  or  even  to  cherish  a  mere 
military  spirit.  It  is  higher,  purer,  nobler.  We  consecrate  our 
work  to  the  spirit  of  national  independence,  and  we  wish  that 
the  light  of  peace  may  rest  upon  it  for  ever.  We  rear  a  memo 
rial  of  our  conviction  of  that  unmeasured  benefit  which  has 
been  conferred  on  our  own  land,  and  of  the  happy  influences 
which  have  been  produced,  by  the  same  events,  on  the  general 
interests  of  mankind.  We  come,  as  Americans,  to  mark  a  spot 
which  must  for  ever  be  dear  to  us  and  our  posterity.  We  wish 
that  whosoever,  in  all  coming  time,  shall  turn  his  eye  hither, 
may  behold  that  the  place  is  not  undistinguished  where  the  first 
great  battle  of  the  Revolution  was  fought.  We  wish  that  this 
structure  may  proclaim  the  magnitude  and  importance  of  that 
event  to  every  class  and  every  age.  We  wish  that  infancy 
may  learn  the  purpose  of  its  erection  from  maternal  lips,  and 
that  weary  and  withered  age  may  behold  it,  and  be  solaced  by 
the  recollections  which  it  suggests.  We  wish  that  labor  may 
look  up  here,  and  be  proud,  in  the  midst  of  its  toil.  We  wish 
that,  in  those  days  of  disaster,  which,  as  they  come  upon  all  na 
tions,  must  be  expected  to  come  upon  us  also,  desponding  patri 
otism  may  turn  its  eyes  hitherward,  and  be  assured  that  the 
foundations  of  our  national  power  are  still  strong.  We  wish 
that  this  column,  rising  towards  heaven  among  the  pointed 
spires  of  so  many  temples  dedicated  to  God,  may  contribute 
also  to  produce,  in  all  minds,  a  pious  feeling  of  dependence  and 
gratitude.  We  wish,  finally,  that  the  last  object  to  the  sight  of 
him  who  leaves  his  native  shore,  and  the  first  to  gladden  his 
who  revisits  it,  may  be  something  which  shall  remind  him  of 
the  Liberty  and  the  glory  of  his  country.  Let  it  rise !  let  it  rise, 
till  it  meet  the  sun  in  his  coming ;  let  the  earliest  light  of  the 
morning  gild  it,  and  parting  day  linger  and  play  on  its  summit. 

We  live  in  a  most  extraordinary  age.     Events  so  various  and 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  63 

so  important  that  they  might  crowd  and  distinguish  centuries, 
are,  in  our  times,  compressed  within  the  compass  of  a  single 
life.  When  has  it  happened  that  history  has  had  so  much  to 
record,  in  the  same  term  of  years,  as  since  the  17th  of  June, 
1775  ?  Our  own  Revolution,  which,  under  other  circumstances, 
might  itself  have  been  expected  to  occasion  a  war  of  half  a  cen 
tury,  has  been  achieved;  twenty-four  sovereign  and  indepen 
dent  States  erected ;  and  a  general  government  established  over 
them,  so  safe,  so  wise,  so  free,  so  practical,  that  we  might  well 
wonder  its  establishment  should  have  been  accomplished  so 
soon,  were  it  not  far  the  greater  wonder  that  it  should  have 
been  established  at  all.  Two  or  three  millions  of  people  have 
been  augmented  to  twelve,  the  great  forests  of  the  "West  pros 
trated  beneath  the  arm  of  successful  industry,  and  the  dwellers 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  become  the  fel 
low-citizens  and  neighbors  of  those  who  cultivate  the  hills  oi 
New  England.*  We  have  a  commerce,  that  leaves  no  sea  un 
explored';  navies,  which  take  no  law  from  superior  force;  reve 
nues,  adequate  to  all  the  exigencies  of  government,  almost  with 
out  taxation;  and  peace  with  all  nations,  founded  on  equal 
rights  and  mutual  respect. 

Europe,  within  the  same  period,  has  been  agitated  by  a  mighty 
revolution,  which,  while  it  has  been  felt  in  the  individual  condi 
tion  and  happiness  of  almost  every  man,  has  shaken  to  the  cen 
tre  her  political  fabric,  and  dashed  against  one  another  thrones 
which  had  stood  tranquil  for  ages.  On  this,  our  continent,  our 
own  example  has  been  followed,  and  colonies  have  sprung  up 
to  be  nations.  Unaccustomed  sounds  of  liberty  and  free  gov 
ernment  have  reached  us  from  beyond  the  track  of  the  sun ;  and 
at  this  moment  the  dominion  of  European  power  in  this  conti 
nent,  from  the  place  where  we  stand  to  the  south  pole,  is  anni 
hilated  for  ever.f 

In  the  mean  time,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  such  has  been 
the  general  progress  of  knowledge,  such  the  improvement  in 

*  That  which  was  spoken  of  figuratively  in  1825  has,  in  the  lapse  of  a  quar 
ter  of  a  century,  by  the  introduction  of  railroads  and  telegraphic  lines,  become  a 
reality.  It  is  an  interesting  circumstance,  that  the  first  railroad  on  the  Western 
Continent  was  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  accelerating  the  erection  of  this 
monument. 

f  See  President  Monroe's  Message  to  Congress  in  1823,  and  Mr.  Webster's 
speech  on  the  Panama  mission,  in  1826. 


64  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

legislation,  in  commerce,  in  the  arts,  in  letters,  and,  above  all,  in 
liberal  ideas  and  the  general  spirit  of  the  age,  that  the  whole 
world  seems  changed. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  that  this  is  but  a  faint  abstract  of  the 
things  which  have  happened  since  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Bun 
ker  Hill,  we  are  but  fifty  years  removed  from  it ;  and  we  now 
stand  here  to  enjoy  all  the  blessings  of  our  own  condition,  and 
to  look  abroad  on  the  brightened  prospects  of  the  world,  while 
we  still  have  among  us  some  of  those  who  were  active  agents 
in  the  scenes  of  1775,  and  who  are  now  here,  from  every  quarter 
of  New  England,  to  visit  once  more,  and  under  circumstances 
so  affecting,  I  had  almost  said  so  overwhelming,  this  renowned 
theatre  of  their  courage  and  patriotism. 

VENERABLE  MEN  !  you  have  come  down  to  us  from  a  former 
generation.  Heaven  has  bounteously  lengthened  out  your  lives, 
that  you  might  behold  this  joyous  day.  You  are  now  where 
you  stood  fifty  years  ago,  this  very  hour,  with  your  brothers  and 
your  neighbors,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  the  strife  for  your  coun 
try.  Behold,  how  altered !  The  same  heavens  are  indeed  over 
your  heads ;  the  same  ocean  rolls  at  your  feet ;  but  all  else  how 
changed !  You  hear  now  no  roar  of  hostile  cannon,  you  see  no 
mixed  volumes  of  smoke  and  flame  rising  from  burning  Charles- 
town.  The  ground  strowed  with  the  dead  and  the  dying ;  the 
impetuous  charge ;  the  steady  and  successful  repulse ;  the  loud 
call  to  repeated  assault ;  the  summoning  of  all  that  is  manly  to 
repeated  resistance;  a  thousand  bosoms  freely  and  fearlessly 
bared  in  an  instant  to  whatever  of  terror  there  may  be  in  war 
and  death;  —  all  these  you  have  witnessed,  but  you  witness  them 
no  more.  All  is  peace.  The  heights  of  yonder  metropolis,  its 
towers  and  roofs,  which  you  then  saw  filled  with  wives  and 
children  and  countrymen  in  distress  and  terror,  and  looking  with 
unutterable  emotions  for  the  issue  of  the  combat,  have  presented 
you  to-day  with  the  sight  of  its  whole  happy  population,  come 
out  to  welcome  and  greet  you  with  a  universal  jubilee.  Yon 
der  proud  ships,  by  a  felicity  of  position  appropriately  lying  at 
the  foot  of  this  mount,  and  seeming  fondly  to  cling  around  it, 
are  not  means  of  annoyance  to  you,  but  your  country's  own 
means  of  distinction  and  defence.*  All  is  peace ;  and  God  has 

*  It  is  necessary  to  inform  those  only  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  locali- 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  65 

granted  you  this  sight  of  your  country's  happiness,  ere  you 
slumber  in  the  grave.  He  has  allowed  you  to  behold  and  to 
partake  the  reward  of  your  patriotic  toils ;  and  he  has  allowed 
us,  your  'sons  and  countrymen,  to  meet  you  here,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  present  generation,  in  the  name  of  your  country,  in 
the  name  of  liberty,  to  thank  you ! 

But,  alas !  you  are  not  all  here !  Time  and  the  sword  have 
thinned  your  ranks.  Prescott,  Putnam,  Stark,  Brooks,  Read, 
Pomeroy,  Bridge !  our  eyes  seek  for  you  in  vain  amid  this  bro 
ken  band.  You  are  gathered  to  your  fathers,  and  live  only  to 
your  country  in  her  grateful  remembrance  and  your  own  bright 
example.  But  let  us  not  too  much  grieve,  that  you  have  met 
the  common  fate  of  men.  You  lived  at  least  long  enough  to 
know  that  your  work  had  been  nobly  and  successfully  accom 
plished.  You  lived  to  see  your  country's  independence  estab 
lished,  and  to  sheathe  your  swords  from  war.  On  the  light  of 
Liberty  you  saw  arise  the  light  of  Peace,  like 

"  another  morn, 
Risen  on  mid-noon  "  ; 

and  the  sky  on  which  you  closed  your  eyes  was  cloudless. 

But  ah!  Him!  the  first  great  martyr  in  this  great  cause! 
Him!  the  premature  victim  of  his  own  self-devoting  heart! 
Him !  the  head  of  our  civil  councils,  and  the  destined  leader  of 
our  military  bands,  whom  nothing  brought  hither  but  the  un 
quenchable  fire  of  his  own  spirit !  Him !  cut  off  by  Providence 
in  the  hour  of  overwhelming  anxiety  and  thick  gloom ;  falling 
ere  he  saw  the  star  of  his  country  rise ;  pouring  out  his  generous 
blood  like  water,  before  he  knew  whether  it  would  fertilize  a 
land  of  freedom  or  of  bondage !  —  how  shall  I  struggle  with  the 
emotions  that  stifle  the  utterance  of  thy  name !  *  Our  poor  work 
may  perish;  but  thine  shall  endure!  This  monument  may 
moulder  away ;  the  solid  ground  it  rests  upon  may  sink  down 
to  a  level  with  the  sea ;  but  thy  memory  shall  not  fail !  Where 
soever  among  men  a  heart  shall  be  found  that  beats  to  the  trans 
ports  of  patriotism  and  liberty,  its  aspirations  shall  be  to  claim 
kindred  with  thy  spirit ! 

ties,  that  the  United  States  Navy  Yard  at  Charlestown  is  situated  at  the  base  of 
Bunkei  Hill. 
*  See  the  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XLI.  .p.  242. 

6* 


66  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

But  the  scene  amidst  which  we  stand  does  not  permit  us  to 
confine  our  thoughts  or  our  sympathies  to  those  fearless  spirits 
who  hazarded  or  lost  their  lives  on  this  consecrated  spot.  We 
have  the  happiness  to  rejoice  here  in  the  presence  of  a  most 
worthy  representation  of  the  survivors  of  the  whole  Revolution 
ary  army. 

VETERANS  !  you  are  the  remnant  of  many  a  well-fought  field. 
You  bring  with  you  marks  of  honor  from  Trenton  and  Mon- 
mouth,  from  Yorktown,  Camden,  Bennington,  and  Saratoga, 
VETERANS  OF  HALF  A  CENTURY!  when  in  your  youthful  days 
you  put  every  thing  at  hazard  in  your  country's  cause,  good  as 
that  cause  was,  and  sanguine  as  youth  is,  still  your  fondest 
hopes  did  not  stretch  onward  to  an  hour  like  this !  At  a  period 
to  which  you  could  not  reasonably  have  expected  to  arrive,  at  a 
moment  of  national  prosperity  such  as  you  could  never  have 
foreseen,  you  are  now  met  here  to  enjoy  the  fellowship  of  old  sol 
diers,  and  to  receive  the  overflowings  of  a  universal  gratitude. 

But  your  agitated  countenances  and  your  heaving  breasts 
inform  me  that  even  this  is  not  an  unmixed  joy.  I  perceive 
that  a  tumult  of  contending  feelings  rushes  upon  you.  The 
images  of  the  dead,  as  well  as  the  persons  of  the  living,  present 
themselves  before  you.  The  scene  overwhelms  you,  and  I  turn 
from  it.  May  the  Father  of  all  mercies  smile  upon  your  declin 
ing  years,  and  bless  them !  And  when  you  shall  here  have  ex 
changed  your  embraces,  when  you  shall  once  more  have  pressed 
the  hands  which  have  been  so  often  extended  to  give  succor  in 
adversity,  or  grasped  in  the  exultation  of  victory,  then  look 
abroad  upon  this  lovely  land  which  your  young  valor  defended, 
and  mark  the  happiness  with  which  it  is  filled ;  yea,  look  abroad 
upon  the  whole  earth,  and  see  what  a  name  you  have  contributed 
to  give  to  your  country,  and  what  a  praise  you  have  added  to 
freedom,  and  then  rejoice  in  the  sympathy  and  gratitude  which 
beam  upon  your  last  days  from  the  improved  condition  of  man 
kind! 

The  occasion  does  not  require  of  me  any  particular  account  of 
the  battle  of  the  17th  of  June,  1775,  nor  any  detailed  narrative  of 
the  events  which  immediately  preceded  it.  These  are  familiarly 
known  to  all.  In  the  progress  of  the  great  and  interesting  con- 
tioversy,  Massachusetts  and  the  town  of  Boston  had  become 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  67 

early  and  marked  objects  of  the  displeasure  of  the  British  Par 
liament.  This  had  been  manifested  in  the  act  for  altering  the 
government  of  the  Province,  and  in  that  for  shutting  up  the 
port  of  Boston.  Nothing  sheds  more  honor  on  our  early  his 
tory,  and  nothing  better  shows  how  little  the  feelings  and  senti 
ments  of  the  Colonies  were  known  or  regarded  in  England,  than 
the  impression  which  these  measures  everywhere  produced  in 
America.  It  had  been  anticipated,  that  while  the  Colonies  in 
general  would  be  terrified  by  the  severity  of  the  punishment  in 
flicted  on  Massachusetts,  the  other  seaports  would  be  governed 
by  a  mere  spirit  of  gain ;  and  that,  as  Boston  was  now  cut  off 
from  all  commerce,  the  unexpected  advantage  which  this  blow 
on  her  was  calculated  to  confer  on  other  towns  would  be  greed 
ily  enjoyed.  How  miserably  such  reasoners  deceived  them 
selves  !  How  little  they  knew  of  the  depth,  and  the  strength, 
and  the  intenseness  of  that  feeling  of  resistance  to  illegal  acts  of 
power,  which  possessed  the  whole  American  people!  Every 
where  the  unworthy  boon  was  rejected  with  scorn.  The  fortu 
nate  occasion  was  seized,  everywhere,  to  show  to  the  whole 
world  that  the  Colonies  were  swayed  by  no  local  interest,  no 
partial  interest,  no  selfish  interest.  The  temptation  to  profit  by 
the  punishment  of  Boston  was  strongest  to  our  neighbors  of 
Salem.  Yet  Salem  was  precisely  the  place  where  this  misera 
ble  proffer  was  spurned,  in  a  tone  of  the  most  lofty  self-respect 
and  the  most  indignant  patriotism.  "  We  are  deeply  affected," 
said  its  inhabitants,  "  with  the  sense  of  our  public  calamities ; 
but  the  miseries  that  are  now  rapidly  hastening  on  our  brethren 
in  the  capital  of  the  Province  greatly  excite  our  commiseration. 
By  shutting  up  the  port  of  Boston,  some  imagine  that  the 
course  of  trade  might  be  turned  hither  and  to  our  benefit ;  but 
we  must  be  dead  to  every  idea  of  justice,  lost  to  all  feelings  of 
humanity,  could  we  indulge  a  thought  to  seize  on  wealth  and 
raise  our  fortunes  on  the  ruin  of  our  suffering  neighbors." 
These  noble  sentiments  were  not  confined  to  our  immediate 
vicinity.  In  that  day  of  general  affection  and  brotherhood,  the 
blow  given  to  Boston  smote  on  every  patriotic  heart  from  one 
end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  as 
well  as  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire,  felt  and  proclaimed 
the  cause  to  be  their  own.  The  Continental  Congress,  then 
holding  its  first  session  in  Philadelphia,  expressed  its  sympathy 


68  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

for  the  suffering  inhabitants  of  Boston,  and  addresses  were  re 
ceived  from  all  quarters,  assuring  them  that  the  cause  was  a 
common  one,  and  should  be  met  by  common  efforts  and  com 
mon  sacrifices.  The  Congress  of  Massachusetts  responded  to 
these  assurances ;  and  in  an  address  to  the  Congress  at  Phila 
delphia,  bearing  the  official  signature,  perhaps  among  the  last, 
of  the  immortal  "Warren,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  its 
suffering  and  the  magnitude  of  the  dangers  which  threatened  it,  it 
was  declared,  that  this  Colony  "  is  ready,  at  all  times,  to  spend 
and  to  be  spent  in  the  cause  of  America." 

But  the  hour  drew  nigh  which  was  to  put  professions  to  the 
proof,  and  to  determine  whether  the  authors  of  these  mutual 
pledges  were  ready  to  seal  them  in  blood.  The  tidings  of  Lex 
ington  and  Concord  had  no  sooner  spread,  than  it  was  univer 
sally  felt  that  the  time  was  at  last  come  for  action.  A  spirit 
pervaded  all  ranks,  not  transient,  not  boisterous,  but  deep, 
solemn,  determined, 

"  totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem,  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet." 

War,  on  their  own  soil  and  at  then*  own  doors,  was,  indeed,  a 
strange  work  to  the  yeomanry  of  New  England ;  but  their  con 
sciences  were  convinced  of  its  necessity,  their  country  called 
them  to  it,  and  they  did  not  withhold  themselves  from  the  per 
ilous  trial.  The  ordinary  occupations  of  life  were  abandoned ; 
the  plough  was  staid  in  the  unfinished  furrow ;  wives  gave  up 
their  husbands,  and  mothers  gave  up  their  sons,  to  the  battles  of 
a  civil  war.  Death  might  come,  in  honor,  on  the  field ;  it  might 
-come,  in  disgrace,  on  the  scaffold.  For  either  and  for  both  they 
were  prepared.  The  sentiment  of  Quincy  was  full  in  their 
hearts.  "  Blandishments,"  said  that  distinguished  son  of  genius 
and  patriotism,  "will  not  fascinate  us,  nor  will  threats  of  a 
halter  intimidate;  for,  under  God,  we  are  determined  that, 
wheresoever,  whensoever,  or  howsoever  we  shall  be  called  to 
make  our  exit,  we  will  die  free  men." 

The  17th  of  June  saw  the  four  New  England  Colonies  stand 
ing  here,  side  by  side,  to  triumph  or  to  fall  together ;  and  there 
was  with  them  from  that  moment  to  the  end  of  the  war,  what 
I  hope  will  remain  with  them  for  ever,  one  cause,  one  country, 
one  heart. 

The  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  attended  with  the  most  im- 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  69 

portant  effects  beyond  its  immediate  results  as  a  military  en 
gagement.  It  created  at  once  a  state  of  open,  public  war. 
There  could  now  be  no  longer  a  question  of  proceeding  against 
individuals,  as  guilty  of  treason  or  rebellion.  That  fearful  crisis 
was  past.  The  appeal  lay  to  the  sword,  and  the  only  question 
was,  whether  the  spirit  and  the  resources  of  the  people  would 
hold  out,  till  the  object  should  be  accomplished.  Nor  were  its 
general  consequences  confined  to  our  own  country.  The  previous 
proceedings  of  the  Colonies,  then:  appeals,  resolutions,  and  ad 
dresses,  had  made  their  cause  known  to  Europe.  Withou^ 
boasting,  we  may  say,  that  in  no  age  or  country  has  the  public 
cause  been  maintained  with  more  force  of  argument,  more  power 
of  illustration,  or  more  of  that  persuasion  which  excited  feeling 
and  elevated  principle  can  alone  bestow,  than  the  Revolutionary 
state  papers  exhibit.  These  papers  will  for  ever  deserve  to  be 
studied,  not  only  for  the  spirit  which  they  breathe,  but  for  the 
ability  with  which  they  were  written. 

To  this  able  vindication  of  their  cause,  the  Colonies  had  now 
added  a  practical  and  severe  proof  of  their  own  true  devotion 
to  it,  and  given  evidence  also  of  the  power  which  they  could 
bring  to  its  support.  All  now  saw,  that  if  America  fell,  she 
would  not  fall  without  a  struggle.  Men  felt  sympathy  and  re 
gard,  as  well  as  surprise,  when  they  beheld  these  infant  states, 
remote,  unknown,  unaided,  encounter  the  power  of  England, 
and,  in  the  first  considerable  battle,  leave  more  of  their  enemies 
dead  on  the  field,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  combatants, 
than  had  been  recently  known  to  fall  in  the  wars  of  Europe. 

Information  of  these  events,  circulating  throughout  the  world, 
at  length  reached  the  ears  of  one  who  now  hears  me.*  He  has 
not  forgotten  the  emotion  which  the  fame  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
the  name  of  Warren,  excited  in  his  youthful  breast. 

SIR,  we  are  assembled  to  commemorate  the  establishment  of 
great  public  principles  of  liberty,  and  to  do  honor  to  the  dis 
tinguished  dead.  The  occasion  is  too  severe  for  eulogy  of  the 
living.  But,  Sir,  your  interesting  relation  to  this  country,  the 

*  Among  the  earliest  of  the  arrangements  for  the  celebration  of  the  17th  of 
June,  1825,  was  the  invitation  to  General  Lafayette  to  be  present ;  and  he  had 
so  timed  his  progress  through  the  other  States  as  to  return  to  Massachusetts  in 
season  for  the  great  occasion 


70  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

peculiar  circumstances  which  surround  you  and  surround  us, 
call  on  me  to  express  the  happiness  which  we  derive  from  your 
presence  and  aid  in  this  solemn  commemoration. 

Fortunate,  fortunate  man!  with  what  measure  of  devotion 
will  you  not  thank  God  for  the  circumstances  of  your  extraor 
dinary  life !  You  are  connected  with  both  hemispheres  and  with 
two  generations.  Heaven  saw  fit  to  ordain,  that  the  electric 
spark  of  liberty  should  be  conducted,  through  you,  from  the  New 
World  to  the  Old ;  and  we,  who  are  now  here  to  perform  this 
duty  of  patriotism,  have  all  of  us  long  ago  received  it  in  charge 
from  our  fathers  to  cherish  your  name  and  your  virtues.  You 
will  account  it  an  instance  of  your  good  fortune,  Sir,  that  you 
crossed  the  seas  to  visit  us  at  a  time  which  enables  you  to  be 
present  at  this  solemnity.  You  now  behold  the  field,  the  re 
nown  of  which  reached  you  in  the  heart  of  France,  and  caused 
a  thrill  in  your  ardent  bosom.  You  see  the  lines  of  the  little 
redoubt  thrown  up  by  the  incredible  diligence  of  Prescott ;  de 
fended,  to  the  last  extremity,  by  his  lion-hearted  valor;  and 
within  which  the  corner-stone  of  our  monument  has  now  taken 
its  position.  You  see  where  Warren  fell,  and  where  Parker, 
Gardner,  McCleary,  Moore,  and  other  early  patriots,  fell  with 
him.  Those  who  survived  that  day,  and  whose  lives  have  been 
prolonged  to  the  present  hour,  are  now  around  you.  Some  of 
them  you  have  known  in  the  trying  scenes  of  the  war.  Be 
hold  !  they  now  stretch  forth  their  feeble  arms  to  embrace  you. 
Behold !  they  raise  their  trembling  voices  to  invoke  the  blessing 
of  God  on  you  and  yours  for  ever. 

Sir,  you  have  assisted  us  in  laying  the  foundation  of  this 
structure.  You  have  heard  us  rehearse,  with  our  feeble  com 
mendation,  the  names  of  departed  patriots.  Monuments  and 
eulogy  belong  to  the  dead.  We  give  them  this  day  to  Warren 
and  his  associates.  On  other  occasions  they  have  been  given  to 
your  more  immediate  companions  in  arms,  to  Washington,  to 
Greene,  to  Gates,  to  Sullivan,  and  to  Lincoln.  We  have  become 
reluctant  to  grant  these,  our  highest  and  last  honors,  further. 
We  would  gladly  hold  them  yet  back  from  the  little  remnant  of 
that  immortal  band.  Serus  in  cesium  redeas.  Illustrious  as  are 
your  merits,  yet  far,  O,  very  far  distant  be  the  day,  when  any 
inscription  shall  bear  your  name,  or  any  tongue  pronounce  its 
eulogy ! 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  71 

The  leading  reflection  to  which  this  occasion  seems  to  invite 
us,  respects  the  great  changes  which  have  happened  in  the  fifty 
years  since  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought.  And  it  pecu 
liarly  marks  the  character  of  the  present  age,  that,  in  looking  at 
these  changes,  and  in  estimating  then*  effect  on  our  condition, 
we  are  obliged  to  consider,  not  what  has  been  done  in  our  own 
country  only,  but  in  others  also.  In  these  interesting  times, 
while  nations  are  making  separate  and  individual  advances  in 
improvement,  they  make,  too,  a  common  progress ;  like  vessels 
on  a  common  tide,  propelled  by  the  gales  at  different  rates,  ac 
cording  to  their  several  structure  and  management,  but  all 
moved  forward  by  one  mighty  current,  strong  enough  to  bear 
onward  whatever  does  not  sink  beneath  it. 

A  chief  distinction  of  the  present  day  is  a  community  of 
opinions  and  knowledge  amongst  men  in  different  nations,  ex 
isting  in  a  degree  heretofore  unknown.  Knowledge  has,  in  our 
time,  triumphed,  and  is  triumphing,  over  distance,  over  differ 
ence  of  languages,  over  diversity  of  habits,  over  prejudice,  and 
over  bigotry.  The  civilized  and  Christian  world  is  fast  learning 
the  great  lesson,  that  difference  of  nation  does  not  imply  neces 
sary  hostility,  and  that  all  contact  need  not  be  war.  The  whole 
world  is  becoming  a  common  field  for  intellect  to  act  in.  Energy 
of  mind,  genius,  power,  wheresoever  it  exists,  may  speak  out  in 
any  tongue,  and  the  world  will  hear  it.  A  great  chord  of  senti 
ment  and  feeling  runs  through  two  continents,  and  vibrates  over 
both.  Every  breeze  wafts  intelligence  from  country  to  country ; 
every  wave  rolls  it ;  all  give  it  forth,  and  all  in  turn  receive  it. 
There  is  a  vast  commerce  of  ideas ;  there  are  marts  and  ex 
changes  for  intellectual  discoveries,  and  a  wonderful  fellowship 
of  those  individual  intelligences  which  make  up  the  mind  and 
opinion  of  the  age.  Mind  is  the  great  lever  of  all  things ;  hu 
man  thought  is  the  process  by  which  human  ends  are  ultimately 
answered ;  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  so  astonishing  in  the 
last  half-century,  has  rendered  innumerable  minds,  variously 
gifted  by  nature,  competent  to  be  competitors  or  fellow-workers 
on  the  theatre  of  intellectual  operation. 

From  these  causes  important  improvements  have  taken  place 
in  the  personal  condition  of  individuals.  Generally  speaking, 
mankind  are  not  only  better  fed  and  better  clothed,  but  they 
are  able  also  to  enjoy  more  leisure ;  they  possess  more  refine- 


72  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

ment  and  more  self-respect.  A  superior  tone  of  education,  man 
ners,  and  habits  prevails.  This  remark,  most  true  in  its  appli 
cation  to  our  own  country,  is  also  partly  true  when  applied 
elsewhere.  It  is  proved  by  the  vastly  augmented  consumption 
of  those  articles  of  manufacture  and  of  commerce  which  con 
tribute  to  the  comforts  and  the  decencies  of  life  ;  an  augmenta 
tion  which  has  far  outrun  the  progress  of  population.  And 
while  the  unexampled  and  almost  incredible  use  of  machinery 
would  seem  to  supply  the  place  of  labor,  labor  still  finds  its 
occupation  and  its  reward ;  so  wisely  has  Providence  adjusted 
men's  wants  and  desires  to  their  condition  and  their  capacity. 

Any  adequate  survey,  however,  of  the  progress  made  during 
the  last  half-century  in  the  polite  and  the  mechanic  arts,  in 
machinery  and  manufactures,  in  commerce  and  agriculture,  in 
letters  and  in  science,  would  require  volumes.  I  must  abstain 
wholly  from  these  subjects,  and  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  con 
templation  of  what  has  been  done  on  the  great  question  of 
politics  and  government.  This  is  the  master  topic  of  the  age ; 
and  during  the  whole  fifty  years  it  has  intensely  occupied  the 
thoughts  of  men.  The  nature  of  civil  government,  its  ends  and 
uses,  have  been  canvassed  and  investigated;  ancient  opinions 
attacked  and  defended ;  new  ideas  recommended  and  resisted, 
by  whatever  power  the  mind  of  man  could  bring  to  the  contro 
versy.  From  the  closet  and  the  public  halls  the  debate  has 
been  transferred  to  the  field ;  and  the  world  has  been  shaken  by 
wars  of  unexampled  magnitude,  and  the  greatest  variety  of 
fortune.  A  day  of  peace  has  at  length  succeeded;  and  now 
that  the  strife  has  subsided,  and  the  smoke  cleared  away,  we 
may  begin  to  see  what  has  actually  been  done,  permanently 
changing  the  state  and  condition  of  human  society.  And,  with 
out  dwelling  on  particular  circumstances,  it  is  most  apparent, 
that,  from  the  before-mentioned  causes  of  augmented  knowledge 
and  improved  individual  condition,  a  real,  substantial,  and  im 
portant  change  has  taken  place,  and  is  taking  place,  highly 
favorable,  on  the  whole,  to  human  liberty  and  human  happiness. 

The  great  wheel  of  political  revolution  began  to  move  in 
America.  Here  its  rotation  was  guarded,  regular,  and  safe. 
Transferred  to  the  other  continent,  from  unfortunate  but  natural 
causes,  it  received  an  irregular  and  violent  impulse ;  it  whirled 
along  with  a  fearful  celerity  ;  till  at  length,  like  the  chariot-wheels 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  73 

in  the  races  of  antiquity,  it  took  fire  from  the  rapidity  of  its 
own  motion,  and  blazed  onward,  spreading  conflagration  and 
terror  around. 

We  learn  from  the  result  of  this  experiment,  how  fortunate 
was  our  own  condition,  and  how  admirably  the  character  of  our 
people  was  calculated  for  setting  the  great  example  of  popular 
governments.  The  possession  of  power  did  not  turn  the  heads 
of  the  American  people,  for  they  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
exercising  a  great  degree  of  self-control.  Although  the  para 
mount  authority  of  the  parent  state  existed  over  them,  yet  a 
large  field  of  legislation  had  always  been  open  to  our  Colonial 
assemblies.  They  were  accustomed  to  representative  bodies 
and  the  forms  of  free  government ;  they  understood  the  doctrine 
of  the  division  of  power  among  different  branches,  and  the 
necessity  of  checks  on  each.  The  character  of  our  countrymen^ 
moreover,  was  sober,  moral,  and  religious ;  and  there  was  little 
in  the  change  to  shock  their  feelings  of  justice  and  humanity,  or 
even  to  disturb  an  honest  prejudice.  We  had  no  domestic 
throne  to  overturn,  no  privileged  orders  to  cast  down,  no  violent 
changes  of  property  to  encounter.  In  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  no  man  sought  or  wished  for  more  than  to  defend  and 
enjoy  his  own.  None  hoped  for  plunder  or  for  spoil.  Rapacity 
was  unknown  to  it ;  the  axe  was  not  among  the  instruments  of 
its  accomplishment;  and  we  all  know  that  it  could  not  have 
lived  a  single  day  under  any  well-founded  imputation  of  pos 
sessing  a  tendency  adverse  to  the  Christian  religion. 

It  need  not  surprise  us,  that,  under  circumstances  less  auspi 
cious,  political  revolutions  elsewhere,  even  when  well  intended, 
have  terminated  differently.  It  is,  indeed,  a  great  achievement, 
it  is  the  master-work  of  the  world,  to  establish  governments  en 
tirely  popular  on  lasting  foundations ;  nor  is  it  easy,  indeed,  to 
introduce  the  popular  principle  at  all  into  governments  to  which 
it  has  been  altogether  a  stranger.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  how 
ever,  that  Europe  has  come  out  of  the  contest,  in  which  she  has 
been  so  long  engaged,  with  greatly  superior  knowledge,  and,  in 
many  respects,  in  a  highly  improved  condition.  Whatever 
benefit  has  been  acquired  is  likely  to  be  retained,  for  it  consists 
mainly  in  the  acquisition  of  more  enlightenect  ideas.  And  al 
though  kingdoms  and  provinces  may  be  wrested  from  the  hands 
that  hold  them,  in  the  same  manner  they  were  obtained ;  al 

VOL.  i.  7 


74  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

though  ordinary  and  vulgar  power  may,  in  human  affairs,  be  lost 
as  it  has  been  won ;  yet  it  is  the  glorious  prerogative  of  the 
empire  of  knowledge,  that  what  it  gains  it  never  loses.  On  the 
contrary,  it  increases  by  the  multiple  of  its  own  power ;  all  its 
ends  become  means;  all  its  attainments,  helps  to  new  con 
quests.  Its  whole  abundant  harvest  is  but  so  much  seed  wheat, 
and  nothing  has  limited,  and  nothing  can  limit,  the  amount 
of  ultimate  product. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  rapidly  increasing  knowledge,  the 
people  have  begun,  in  all  forms  of  government,  to  think,  and  to 
reason,  on  affairs  of  state.  Regarding  government  as  an  institu 
tion  for  the  public  good,  they  demand  a  knowledge  of  its  opera 
tions,  and  a  participation  in  its  exercise.  A  call  for  the  repre 
sentative  system,  wherever  it  is  not  enjoyed,  and  where  there  is 
already  intelligence  enough  to  estimate  its  value,  is  perseveringly 
made.  Where  men  may  speak  out,  they  demand  it;  where 
the  bayonet  is  at  their  throats,  they  pray  for  it. 

When  Louis  the  Fourteenth  said,  "  I  am  the  state,"  he  ex 
pressed  the  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  unlimited  power.  By  the 
rules  of  that  system,  the  people  are  disconnected  from  the  state ; 
they  are  its  subjects  ;  it  is  their  lord.  These  ideas,  founded  in  the 
love  of  power,  and  long  supported  by  the  excess  and  the  abuse  of 
it,  are  yielding,  in  our  age,  to  other  opinions ;  and  the  civilized 
world  seems  at  last  to  be  proceeding  to  the  conviction  of  that 
fundamental  and  manifest  truth,  that  the  powers  of  government 
are  but  a  trust,  and  that  they  cannot  be  lawfully  exercised  but 
for  the  good  of  the  community.  As  knowledge  is  more  and 
more  extended,  this  conviction  becomes  more  and  more  general. 
Knowledge,  in  truth,  is  the  great  sun  in  the  firmament.  Life 
and  power  are  scattered  with  all  its  beams.  The  prayer  of  the 
Grecian  champion,  when  enveloped  in  unnatural  clouds  and 
darkness,  is  the  appropriate  political  supplication  for  the  people 
of  every  country  not  yet  blessed  with  free  institutions  :  — 

"  Dispel  this  cloud,  the  light  of  heaven  restore, 
Give  me  TO  SEE,  — and  Ajax  asks  no  more." 

We  may  hope  that  the  growing  influence  of  enlightened 
sentiment  will .  promote  the  permanent  peace  of  the  world. 
Wars  to  maintain  family  alliances,  to  uphold  or  to  cast  down 
dynasties,  and  to  regulate  successions  to  thrones,  which  have 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  75 

occupied  so  much  room  in  the  history  of  modern  times,  if  not 
less  likely  to  happen  at  all,  will  be  less  likely  to  become  general 
and  involve  many  nations,  as  the  great  principle  shall  be  more 
and  more  established,  that  the  interest  of  the  world  is  peace,  and 
its  first  great  statute,  that  every  nation  possesses  the  power  of 
establishing  a  government  for  itself.  But  public  opinion  has 
attained  also  an  influence  over  governments  which  do  not  admit 
the  popular  principle  into  their  organization.  A  necessary  re 
spect  for  the  judgment  of  the  world  operates,  in  some  measure, 
as  a  control  over  the  most  unlimited  forms  of  authority.  It  is 
owing,  perhaps,  to  this  truth,  that  the  interesting  struggle  of  the 
Greeks  has  been  suffered  to  go  on  so  long,  without  a  direct  in 
terference,  either  to  wrest  that  country  from  its  present  masters, 
or  to  execute  the  system  of  pacification  by  force,  and,  with 
united  strength,  lay  the  neck  of  Christian  and  civilized  Greek  at 
the  foot  of  the  barbarian  Turk.  Let  us  thank  God  that  we  live 
in  an  age  when  something  has  influence  besides  the  bayonet, 
and  when  the  sternest  authority  does  not  venture  to  encounter 
the  scorching  power  of  public  reproach.  Any  attempt  of  the 
kind  I  have  mentioned  should  be  met  by  one  universal  burst  of 
indignation ;  the  air  of  the  civilized  world  ought  to  be  made  too 
warm  to  be  comfortably  breathed  by  any  one  who  would 
hazard  it. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  touching  reflection,  that,  while,  in  the  fulness 
of  our  country's  happiness,  we  rear  this  monument  to  her  honor, 
we  look  for  instruction  in  our  undertaking  to  a  country  which 
is  now  in  fearful  contest,  not  for  works  of  art  or  memorials  of 
'  glory,  but  for  her  own  existence.  Let  her  be  assured,  that  she 
is  not  forgotten  in  the  world ;  that  her  efforts  are  applauded,  and 
that  constant  prayers  ascend  for  her  success.  And  let  us  cherish 
a  confident  hope  for  her  final  triumph.  If  the  true  spark  of  re 
ligious  and  civil  liberty  be  kindled,  it  will  burn.  Human 
agency  cannot  extinguish  it.  Like  the  earth's  central  fire,  it 
may  be  smothered  for  a  time ;  the  ocean  may  overwhelm  it ; 
mountains  may  press  it  down ;  but  its  inherent  and  unconquer 
able  force  will  heave  both  the  ocean  and  the  land,  and  at  some 
time  or  other,  in  some  place  or  other,  the  volcano  will  break  out 
and  flame  up  to  heaven. 

Among  the  great  events  of  the  half-century,  we  must  reckon, 
certainly,  the  revolution  of  South  America;  and  we  are  not 


76  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

likely  to  overrate  the  importance  of  that  revolution,  either  to 
the  people  of  the  country  itself  or  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  The 
late  Spanish  colonies,  now  independent  states,  under  circum 
stances  less  favorable,  doubtless,  than  attended  our  own  revolu 
tion,  have  yet  successfully  commenced  their  national  existence, 
They  have  accomplished  the  great  object  of  establishing  their 
independence ;  they  are  known  and  acknowledged  in  the  world ; 
and  although  in  regard  to  their  systems  of  government,  their 
sentiments  on  religious  toleration,  and  their  provisions  for  public 
instruction,  they  may  have  yet  much  to  learn,  it  must  be  admit 
ted  that  they  have  risen  to  the  condition  of  settled  and  estab 
lished  states  more  rapidly  than  could  have  been  reasonably 
anticipated.  They  already  furnish  an  exhilarating  example  of 
the  difference  between  free  governments  and  despotic  misrule. 
Their  commerce,  at  this  moment,  creates  a  new  activity  in  all 
the  great  marts  of  the  world.  They  show  themselves  able,  by 
an  exchange  of  commodities,  to  bear  a  useful  part  in  the  inter 
course  of  nations. 

A  new  spirit  of  enterprise  and  industry  begins  to  prevail ;  all 
the  great  interests  of  society  receive  a  salutary  impulse ;  and  the 
progress  of  information  not  only  testifies  to  an  improved  condi 
tion,  but  itself  constitutes  the  highest  and  most  essential  im 
provement. 

When  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought,  the  existence  of 
South  America  was  scarcely  felt  in  the  civilized  world.  The 
thirteen  little  Colonies  of  North  America  habitually  called  them 
selves  the  "  Continent."  Borne  down  by  colonial  subjugation, 
monopoly,  and  bigotry,  these  vast  regions  of  the  South  were 
hardly  visible  above  the  horizon.  But  in  our  day  there  has 
been,  as  it  were,  a  new  creation.  The  southern  hemisphere 
emerges  from  the  sea.  Its  lofty  mountains  begin  to  lift  them 
selves  into  the  light  of  heaven;  its  broad  and  fertile  plains 
stretch  out,  in  beauty,  to  the  eye  of  civilized  man,  and  at  the 
mighty  bidding  of  the  voice  of  political  liberty  the  waters  of 
darkness  retire. 

And,  now,  let  us  indulge  an  honest  exultation  in  the  convic 
tion  of  the  benefit  which  the  example  of  our  country  has  pro 
duced,  and  is  likely  to  produce,  on  human  freedom  and  human 
happiness.  Let  us  endeavor  to  comprehend  in  all  its  magni- 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  77 

tnde,  and  to  feel  in  all  its  importance,  the  part  assigned  to  u& 
in  the  great  drama  of  human  affairs.  We  are  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  system  of  representative  and  popular  governments. 
Thus  far  our  example  shows  that  such  governments  are  com 
patible,  not  only  with  respectability  and  power,  but  with  repose, 
with  peace,  with  security  of  personal  rights,  with  good  laws, 
and  a  just  administration. 

We  are  not  propagandists.  Wherever  other  systems  are  pre 
ferred,  either  as  being  thought  better  in  themselves,  or  as  better 
suited  to  existing  condition,  we  leave  the  preference  to  be  en 
joyed.  Our  history  hitherto  proves,  however,  that  the  popular 
form  is  practicable,  and  that  with  wisdom  and  knowledge  men 
may  govern  themselves ;  and  the  duty  incumbent  on  us  is,  to 
preserve  the  consistency  of  this  cheering  example,  and  take  care 
that  nothing  may  weaken  its  authority  with  the  world.  If,  in 
our  case,  the  representative  system  ultimately  fail,  popular  gov 
ernments  must  be  pronounced  impossible.  No  combination  of 
circumstances  more  favorable  to  the  experiment  can  ever  be  ex 
pected  to  occur.  The  last  hopes  of  mankind,  therefore,  rest 
with  us ;  and  if  it  should  be  proclaimed,  that  our  example  had 
become  an  argument  against  the  experiment,  the  knell  of  popu 
lar  liberty  would  be  sounded  throughout  the  earth. 

These  are  excitements  to  duty ;  but  they  are  not  suggestions 
of  doubt.  Our  history  and  our  condition,  all  that  is  gone  before 
us,  and  all  that  surrounds  us,  authorize  the  belief,  that  popular 
governments,  though  subject  to  occasional  variations,  in  form 
perhaps  not  always  for  the  better,  may  yet,  in  their  general  char 
acter,  be  as  durable  and  permanent  as  other  systems.  We 
know,  indeed,  that  in  our  country  any  other  is  impossible. 
The  principle  of  free  governments  adheres  to  the  American  soil. 
It  is  bedded  in  it,  immovable  as  its  mountains. 

And  let  the  sacred  obligations  which  have  devolved  on  this 
generation,  and  on  us,  sink  deep  into  our  hearts.  Those  who 
established  our  liberty  and  our  government  are  daily  dropping 
from  among  us.  The  great  trust  now  descends  to  new  hands. 
Let  us  apply  ourselves  to  that  which  is  presented  to  us,  as  our 
appropriate  object.  We  can  win  no  laurels  in  a  war  for  inde 
pendence.  Earlier  and  worthier  hands  have  gathered  them  all. 
Nor  are  there  places  for  us  by  the  side  of  Solon,  and  Alfred,  and 
other  founders  of  states.  Our  fathers  have  rilled  them.  But 
7* 


78  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

there  remains  to  us  a  great  duty  of  defence  and  preservation ; 
and  there  is  opened  to  us,  also,  a  noble  pursuit,  to  which  the 
spirit  of  the  times  strongly  invites  us.  Our  proper  business  is 
improvement.  Let  our  age  be  the  age  of  improvement.  In  a 
day  of  peace,  let  us  advance  the  arts  of  peace  and  the  works  of 
peace.  Let  us  develop  the  resources  of  our  land,  call  forth  its 
powers,  build  up  its  institutions,  promote  all  its  great  interests, 
and  see  whether  we  also,  in  our  day  and  generation,  may  not 
perform  something  worthy  to  be  remembered.  Let  us  cultivate 
a  true  spirit  of  union  and  harmony.  In  pursuing  the  great 
objects  which  our  condition  points  out  to  us,  let  us  act  under  a 
settled  conviction,  and  an  habitual  feeling,  that  these  twenty- 
four  States  are  one  country.  Let  our  conceptions  be  enlarged 
to  the  circle  of  our  duties.  Let  us  extend  our  ideas  over  the 
whole  of  the  vast  field  in  which  we  are  called  to  act.  Let  our 
object  be,  OUR  COUNTRY,  OUR  WHOLE  COUNTRY,  AND  NOTHING  BUT 
OUR  COUNTRY.  And,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  may  that  country 
itself  become  a  vast  and  splendid  monument,  not  of  oppres 
sion  and  terror,  but  of  Wisdom,  of  Peace,  and  of  Liberty,  upon 
which  the  world  may  gaze  with  admiration  for  ever ! 


THE  COMPLETION 


OF 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT, 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE.* 


IN  the  introductory  note  to  the  preceding  Address,  a  brief  account  is 
given  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  measures  adopted  for  the  erection 
of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  down  to  the  time  of  laying  the  corner 
stone,  compiled  from  Mr.  Frothingham's  History  of  the  Siege  of  Boston. 
The  same  valuable  work  (pp.  345-352)  relates  the  obstacles  which  pre 
sented  themselves  to  the  rapid  execution  of  the  design,  and  the  means 
by  which  they  were  overcome.  In  this  narrative,  Mr.  Froth ingham  has 
done  justice  to  the  efforts  and  exertions  of  the  successive  boards  of  direc 
tion  and  officers  of  the  Association,  to  the  skill  and  disinterestedness  of  the 
architect,  to  the  liberality  of  distinguished  individuals,  to  the  public  spirit 
of  the  Massachusetts  Charitable  Mechanic  Association,  in  promoting  a  re 
newed  subscription,  and  to  the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  ladies  of  Boston  and 
the  vicinity,  in  holding  a  most  successful  fair.  As  it  would  be  difficult 
farther  to  condense  the  information  contained  in  this  interesting  summary, 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  Mr.  Frothingham's  work  for  an  adequate  ac 
count  of  the  causes  which  delayed  the  completion  of  the  monument  for 
nearly  seventeen  years,  and  of  the  resources  and  exertions  by  which  the 
desired  end  was  finally  attained.  The  last  stone  was  raised  to  its  place 
on  the  morning  of  the  23d  of  July,  1842. 

It  was  determined  by  the  directors  of  the  Association,  that  the  comple 
tion  of  the  work  should  be  celebrated  in  a  manner  not  less  imposing  than 
that  in  which  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  had  been  celebrated,  seven 
teen  years  before.  The  cooperation  of  Mr.  Webster  was  again  invited, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  pressure  of  his  engagements  as  Secretary  of  State 
at  Washington,  was  again  patriotically  yielded.  Many  circumstances  con 
spired  to  increase  the  interest  of  the  occasion.  The  completion  of  the 
monument  had  been  long  delayed,  but  in  the  interval  the  subject  had  been 
kept  much  before  the  public  mind.  Mr.  Webster's  address  on  the  17th  of 
June,  1825,  had  obtained  the  widest  circulation  throughout  the  country ; 
passages  from  it  had  passed  into  household  words  throughout  the  Union. 
Wherever  they  were  repeated,  they  made  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  a 


82       COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

familiar  thought  with  the  people.  Meantime,  Boston  and  Charlestown 
had  doubled  their  population,  and  the  multiplication  of  railroads  in  every 
direction  enabled  a  person,  in  almost  any  part  of  New  England,  to  reach 
the  metropolis  in  a  day.  The  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cab 
inet  had  accepted  invitations  to  be  present ;  delegations  of  the  descendants 
of  New  England  were  present  from  the  remotest  parts  of  the  Union  ;  one 
hundred  and  eight  surviving  veterans  of  the  Revolution,  among  whom 
were  some  who  were  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  imparted  a  touching 
interest  to  the  scene. 

Every  thing  conspired  to  promote  the  success  of  the  ceremonial.  The 
day  was  uncommonly  fine  ;  cool  for  the  season,  and  clear.  A  large  vol 
unteer  force  from  various  parts  of  the  country  had  assembled  for  the  oc 
casion,  and  formed  a  brilliant  escort  to  an  immense  procession,  as  it  moved 
from  Boston  to  the  battle-ground  on  the  hill.  The  bank  which  slopes 
down  from  the  obelisk  on  the  eastern  side  of  Monument  Square  was 
covered  with  seats,  rising  in  the  form  of  an  amphitheatre,  under  the  open 
sky.  These  had  been  prepared  for  ladies,  who  had  assembled  in  great 
numbers,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  procession.  When  it  arrived,  it  was 
received  into  a  large  open  area  in  front  of  these  seats.  Mr.  Webster  waa 
stationed  upon  an  elevated  platform,  in  front  of  the  audience  and  of  the 
monument  towering  in  the  background.  According  to  Mr.  Frothing- 
ham's  estimate,  a  hundred  thousand  persons  were  gathered  about  the 
spot,  and  nearly  half  that  number  are  supposed  to  have  been  within  the 
reach  of  the  orator's  voice.  The  ground  rises  slightly  between  the  plat 
form  and  the  Monument  Square,  so  that  the  whole  of  this  immense  con 
course,  compactly  crowded  together,  breathless  with  attention,  swayed  by 
one  sentiment  of  admiration  and  delight,  was  within  the  full  view  of  the 
speaker.  The  position  and  the  occasion  were  the  height  of  the  moral 
sublime.  "  When,  after  saying,  4  It  is  not  from  my  lips,  it  could  not  be 
from  any  human  lips,  that  that  strain  of  eloquence  is  this  day  to  flow  most 
competent  to  move  and  excite  the  vast  multitude  around  me,  —  the  power 
ful  speaker  stands  motionless  before  us,'  he  paused,  and  pointed  in  silent 
admiration  to  the  sublime  structure,  the  audience  burst  into  long  and 
loud  applause.  It  was  some  moments  before  the  speaker  could  go  on 
with  the  address." 


THE   COMPLETION   OF   THE  BUNKER   HILL 
MONUMENT.* 


A  DUTY  has  been  performed.  A  work  of  gratitude  and  patri 
otism  is  completed.  This  structure,  having  its  foundations  in 
soil  which  drank  deep  of  early  Revolutionary  blood,  has  at 
length  reached  its  destined  height,  and  now  lifts  its  summit  to 
the  skies. 

We  have  assembled  to  celebrate  the  accomplishment  of  this 
undertaking,  and  to  indulge  afresh  in  the  recollection  of  the 
great  event  which  it  is  designed  to  commemorate.  Eighteen 
years,  more  than  half  the  ordinary  duration  of  a  generation  of 
mankind,  have  elapsed  since  the  corner-stone  of  this  monument 
was  laid.  The  hopes  of  its  projectors  rested  on  voluntary  con 
tributions,  private  munificence,  and  the  general  favor  of  the  pub 
lic.  These  hopes  have  not  been  disappointed.  Donations  have 
been  made  by  individuals,  in  some  cases  of  large  amount,  and 
smaller  sums  have  been  contributed  by  thousands.  All  who 
regard  the  object  itself  as  important,  and  its  accomplishment, 
therefore,  as  a  good  attained,  will  entertain  sincere  respect  and 
gratitude  for  the  unwearied  efforts  of  the  successive  presidents, 
boards  of  directors,  and  committees  of  the  Association  which 
has  had  the  general  control  of  the  work.  The  architect,  equally 
entitled  to  our  thanks  and  commendation,  will  find  other  re 
ward,  also,  for  his  labor  and  skill,  in  the  beauty  and  elegance  of 
the  obelisk  itself,  and  the  distinction  which,  as  a  work  of  art,  it 
confers  upon  him. 

At  a  period  when  the  prospects  of  further  progress  in  the  un 
dertaking  \vere  gloomy  and  discouraging,  the  Mechanic  Associ- 

*  An  Address  delivered  on  Bunker  Hill,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1343. 


84       COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

ation,  by  a  most  praiseworthy  and  vigorous  effort,  raised  new 
funds  for  carrying  it  forward,  and  saw  them  applied  with  fidel 
ity,  economy,  and  skill.  It  is  a  grateful  duty  to  make  public 
acknowledgments  of  such  timely  and  efficient  aid. 

The  last  effort  and  the  last  contribution  were  from  a  different 
source.  Garlands  of  grace  and  elegance  were  destined  to  crown 
a  work  which  had  its  commencement  in  manly  patriotism. 
The  winning  power  of  the  sex  addressed  itself  to  the  public, 
and  all  that  was  needed  to  carry  the  monument  to  its  proposed 
height *and  to  give  to  it  its  finish,  was  promptly  supplied.  The 
mothers  and  the  daughters  of  the  land  contributed  thus,  most 
successfully,  to  whatever  there  is  of  beauty  in  the  monument 
itself,  or  whatever  of  utility  and  public  benefit  and  gratification 
there  is  in  its  completion. 

Of  those  with  whom  the  plan  originated  of  erecting  on  this 
spot  a  monument  worthy  of  the  event  to  be  commemorated, 
many  are  now  present ;  but  others,  alas !  have  themselves  be 
come  subjects  of  monumental  inscription.  William  Tudor,  an 
accomplished  scholar,  a  distinguished  writer,  a  most  amiable 
man,  allied  both  by  birth  and  sentiment  to  the  patriots  of  the 
Revolution,  died  while  on  public  service  abroad,  and  now  lies 
buried  in  a  foreign  land.*  William  Sullivan,  a  name  fragrant  of 
Revolutionary  merit,  and  of  public  service  and  public  virtue, 
who  himself  partook  in  a  high  degree  of  the  respect  and  confi 
dence  of  the  community,  and  yet  was  always  most  loved  where 
best  known,  has  also  been  gathered  to  his  fathers.f  And  last, 
George  Blake,  a  lawyer  of  learning  and  eloquence,  a  man  of 
wit  and  of  talent,  of  social  qualities  the  most  agreeable  and  fas 
cinating,  and  of  gifts  which  enabled  him  to  exercise  large  sway 
over  public  assemblies,  has  closed  his  human  career.f  I  know 
that  in  the  crowds  before  me  there  are  those  from  whose  eyes 
tears  will  flow  at  the  mention  of  these  names.  But  such  men 
tion  is  due  to  their  general  character,  their  public  and  private 
virtues,  and  especially,  on  this  occasion,  to  the  spirit  and  zeal 
with  which  they  entered  into  the  undertaking  which  is  now  com 
pleted. 

*  William  Tudor  died  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  as  Charge  d'Affaires  of  the  United 
States,  in  1830. 

f  William  Sullivan  died  in  Boston  in  1839,  George  Blake  in  1841,  both  gen 
tlemen  of  great  political  and  legal  eminence. 


COMPLETION   OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT        85 

I  have  spoken  only  of  those  who  are  no  longer  numbered 
with  the  living.  But  a  long  life,  now  drawing  towards  its  close, 
always  distinguished  by  acts  of  public  spirit,  humanity,  and 
charity,  forming  a  character  which  has  already  become  histori 
cal,  and  sanctified  by  public  regard  and  the  affection  of  friends, 
may  confer  even  on  the  living  the  proper  immunity  of  the  dead, 
and  be  the  fit  subject  of  honorable  mention  and  warm  commen 
dation.  Of  the  early  projectors  of  the  design  of  this  monu 
ment,  one  of  the  most  prominent,  the  most  zealous,  and  the 
most  efficient,  is  Thomas  H.  Perkins.  It  was  beneath  his  ever- 
hospitable  roof  that  those  whom  I  have  mentioned,  and  others 
yet  living  and  now  present,  having  assembled  for  the  purpose, 
adopted  the  first  step  towards  erecting  a  monument  on  Bunker 
Hill.  Long  may  he  remain,  with  unimpaired  faculties,  in  the 
wide  field  of  his  usefulness !  His  charities  have  distilled,  like 
the  dews  of  heaven ;  he  has  fed  the  hungry,  and  clothed  the 
naked ;  he  has  given  sight  to  the  blind ;  and  for  such  virtues 
there  is  a  reward  on  high,  of  which  all  human  memorials,  all 
language  of  brass  and  stone,  are  but  humble  types  and  attempt 
ed  imitations. 

Time  and  nature  have  had  their  course,  in  diminishing  the 
number  of  those  whom  we  met  here  on  the  17th  of  June,  1825. 
Most  of  the  Revolutionary  characters  then  present  have  since 
deceased;  and  Lafayette  sleeps  in  his  native  land.  Yet  the 
name  and  blood  of  Warren  are  with  us ;  the  kindred  of  Putnam 
are  also  here ;  and  near  me,  universally  beloved  for  his  character 
and  his  virtues,  and  now  venerable  for  his  years,  sits  the  son  of 
the  noble-hearted  and  daring  Prescott*  Gideon  Foster  of  Dan- 
vers,  Enos  Reynolds  of  Boxford,  Phineas  Johnson,  Robert  An 
drews,  Elijah  Dresser,  Josiah  Cleaveland,  Jesse  Smith,  Philip 
Bagley,  Needham  Maynard,  Roger  Plaisted,  Joseph  Stephens, 
Nehemiah  Porter,  and  James  Harvey,  who  bore  arms  for  their 
country  either  at  Concord  and  Lexington,  on  the  19th  of  April, 
or  on  Bunker  Hill,  all  now  far  advanced  in  age,  have  come  here 
to-day,  to  look  once  more  on  the  field  where  their  valor  was 
proved,  and  to  receive  a  hearty  outpouring  of  our  respect. 

They  have  long  outlived  the  troubles  and  dangers  of  the  Rev- 

*  William  Prescott  (since  deceased,  in  1844),  son  of  Colonel  William  Pres 
cott,  who  commanded  on  the  17th  of  June,  1775,  and  father  of  William  H. 
Prescott,  the  historian. 

VOL.   I.  8 


86        COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

olution ;  they  have  outlived  the  evils  arising  from  the  want  of 
a  united  and  efficient  government ;  they  have  outlived  the  men 
ace  of  imminent  dangers  to  the  public  liberty ;  they  have  out 
lived  nearly  all  their  contemporaries ;  but  they  have  not  out 
lived,  they  cannot  outlive,  the  affectionate  gratitude  of  their 
country.  Heaven  has  not  allotted  to  this  generation  an  oppor 
tunity  of  rendering  high  services,  and  manifesting  strong  per 
sonal  devotion,  such  as  they  rendered  and  manifested,  and  in 
such  a  cause  as  that  which  roused  the  patriotic  fires  of  their 
youthful  breasts,  and  nerved  the  strength  of  then:  arms.  But 
we  may  praise  what  we  cannot  equal,  and  celebrate  actions 
which  we  were  not  bom  to  perform.  Pulchrum  est  benefacere 
reipublicce,  etiam  bene  dicer e  hand  absurdum  est. 

The  Bunker  Hill  Monument  is  finished.  Here  it  stands. 
Fortunate  in  the  high  natural  eminence  on  which  it  is  placed, 
higher,  infinitely  higher  in  its  objects  and  purpose,  it  rises  over 
the  land  and  over  the  sea ;  and,  visible,  at  their  homes,  to  three 
hundred  thousand  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  it  stands  a 
memorial  of  the  last,  and  a  monitor  to  the  present  and  to  all 
succeeding  generations.  I  have  spoken  of  the  loftiness  of  its 
purpose.  If  it  had  been  without  any  other  design  than  the 
creation  of  a  work  of  art,  the  granite  of  which  it  is  composed 
would  have  slept  in  its  native  bed.  It  has  a  purpose,  and  that 
purpose  gives  it  its  character.  That  purpose  enrobes  it  with 
dignity  and  moral  grandeur.  That  well-known  purpose  it  is 
which  causes  us  to  look  up  to  it  with  a  feeling  of  awe.  It  is 
itself  the  orator  of  this  occasion.  It  is  not  from  my  lips,  it  could 
not  be  from  any  human  lips,  that  that  strain  of  eloquence  is 
this  day  to  flow  most  competent  to  move  and  excite  the  vast 
multitudes  around  me.  The  powerful  speaker  stands  motion 
less  before  us.  It  is  a  plain  shaft.  It  bears  no  inscriptions, 
fronting  to  the  rising  sun,  from  which  the  future  antiquary 
shall  wipe  the  dust.  Nor  does  the  rising  sun  cause  tones  of  mu 
sic  to  issue  from  its  summit.  But  at  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and 
at  the  setting  of  the  sun ;  in  the  blaze  of  noonday,  and  beneath 
the  milder  effulgence  of  lunar  light ;  it  looks,  it  speaks,  it  acts, 
to  the  full  comprehension  of  every  American  mind,  and  the 
awakening  of  glowing  enthusiasm  in  every  American  heart. 
Its  silent,  but  awful  utterance ;  its  deep  pathos,  as  it  brings  to 
our  contemplation  the  17th  of  June,  1775,  and  the  consequences 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.        87 

which  have  resulted  to  us,  to  our  country,  and  to  the  world,  from 
the  events  of  that  day,  and  which  we  know  must  continue  to 
rain  influence  on  the  destinies  of  mankind  to  the  end  of  time ; 
the  elevation  with  which  it  raises  us  high  above  the  ordinary 
feelings  of  life,  surpass  all  that  the  study  of  the  closet,  or 
even  the  inspiration  of  genius,  can  produce.  To-day  it  speaks 
to  us.  Its  future  auditories  will  be  the  successive  generations 
of  men,  as  they  rise  up  before  it  and  gather  around  it.  Its 
speech  will  be  of  patriotism  and  courage ;  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty ;  of  free  government ;  of  the  moral  improvement  and  ele 
vation  of  mankind ;  and  of  the  immortal  memory  of  those  who, 
with  heroic  devotion,  have  sacrificed  their  lives  for  their  country.* 

In  the  older  world,  numerous  fabrics  still  exist,  reared  by  hu 
man  hands,  but  whose  object  has  been  lost  in  the  darkness  of 
ages.  They  are  now  monuments  of  nothing  but  the  labor  and 
skill  which  constructed  them. 

The  mighty  pyramid  itself,  half  buried  in  the  sands  of  Africa, 
has  nothing  to  bring  down  and  report  to  us,  but  the  power  of 
kings  and  the  servitude  of  the  people.  If  it  had  any  purpose 
beyond  that  of  a  mausoleum,  such  purpose  has  perished  from 
history  and  from  tradition.  If  asked  for  its  moral  object,  its 
admonition,  its  sentiment,  its  instruction  to  mankind,  or  any 
high  end  in  its  erection,  it  is  silent ;  silent  as  the  millions  which 
lie  in  the  dust  at  its  base,  and  in  the  catacombs  which  surround 
it.  Without  a  just  moral  object,  therefore,  made  known  to  man, 
though  raised  against  the  skies,  it  excites  only  conviction  of 
power,  mixed  with  strange  wonder.  But  if  the  civilization  of 
the  present  race  of  men,  founded,  as  it  is,  in  solid  science,  the 
true  knowledge  of  nature,  and  vast  discoveries  in  art,  and  which 
is  elevated  and  purified  by  moral  sentiment  and  by  the  truths 
of  Christianity,  be  not  destined  to  destruction  before  the  final 
termination  of  human  existence  on  earth,  the  object  and  purpose 
of  this  edifice  will  be  known  till  that  hour  shall  come.  And 
even  if  civilization  should  be  subverted,  and  the  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion  obscured  by  a  new  deluge  of  barbarism,  the 
memory  of  Bunker  Hill  and  the  American  Revolution  will  still 
be  elements  and  parts  of  the  knowledge  which  shall  be  possessed 
by  the  last  man  to  whom  the  light  of  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity  shall  be  extended. 

*  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Address. 


88       COMPLETION   OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

This  celebration  is  honored  by  the  presence  of  the  chief  ex 
ecutive  magistrate  of  the  Union.  An  occasion  so  national  in 
its  object  and  character,  and  so  much  connected  with  that  Rev 
olution  from  which  the  government  sprang  at  the  head  of 
which  he  is  placed,  may  well  receive  from  him  this  mark  of 
attention  and  respect.  Well  acquainted  with  Yorktown,  the 
scene  of  the  last  great  military  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  his 
eye  now  surveys  the  field  of  Bunker  Hill,  the  theatre  of  the  first 
of  those  important  conflicts.  He  sees  where  Warren  fell,  where 
Putnam,  and  Prescott,  and  Stark,  and  Knowlton,  and  Brooks 
fought.  He  beholds  the  spot  where  a  thousand  trained  soldiers 
of  England  were  smitten  to  the  earth,  in  the  first  effort  of  rev 
olutionary  war,  by  the  arm  of  a  bold  and  determined  yeo 
manry,  contending  for  liberty  and  their  country.  And  while  all 
assembled  here  entertain  towards  him  sincere  personal  good 
wishes  and  the  high  respect  due  to  his  elevated  office  and  sta 
tion,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  he  enters,  with  true  American 
feeling,  into  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  kindled  by  the  occasion 
which  animates  the  multitudes  that  surround  him. 

His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  the 
Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  and  the  other  distinguished  public 
men  whom  we  have  the  honor  to  receive  as  visitors  and  guests 
to-day,  will  cordially  unite  in  a  celebration  connected  with  the 
great  event  of  the  Revolutionary  war. 

No  name  in  the  history  of  1775  and  1776  is  more  distin 
guished  than  that  borne  by  an  ex-president  of  the  United  States, 
whom  we  expected  to  see  here,  but  whose  ill  health  prevents  his 
attendance.  Whenever  popular  rights  were  to  be  asserted,  an 
Adams  was  present ;  and  when  the  time  came  for  the  formal 
Declaration  of  Independence,  it  was  the  voice  of  an  Adams 
that  shook  the  halls  of  Congress.  We  wish  we  could  have 
welcomed  to  us  this  day  the  inheritor  of  Revolutionary  blood, 
and  the  just  and  worthy  representative  of  high  Revolutionary 
names,  merit,  and  services. 

Banners  and  badges,  processions  and  flags,  announce  to  us, 
that  amidst  this  uncounted  throng  are  thousands  of  natives  of 
New  England  now  residents  in  other  States.  Welcome,  ye  kin 
dred  names,  with  kindred  blood !  From  the  broad  savannas  of 
the  South,  from  the  newer  regions  of  the  West,  from  amidst 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  of  Eastern  origin  who  culti- 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL   MONUMENT.       89 

vate  the  rich  valley  of  the  Genesee  or  live  along  the  chain  of 
the  Lakes,  from  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  and  from  the 
thronged  cities  of  the  coast,  welcome,  welcome!  Wherever 
else  you  may  b^  strangers,  here  you  are  all  at  home.  You  as 
semble  at  this  shrine  of  liberty,  near  the  family  altars  at  which 
your  earliest  devotions  were  paid  to  Heaven ;  near  to  the  tem 
ples  of  worship  first  entered  by  you,  and  near  to  the  schools  and 
colleges  in  which  your  education  was  received.  You  come 
hither  with  a  glorious  ancestry  of  liberty.  You  bring  names 
which  are  on  the  rolls  of  Lexington,  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill. 
You  come,  some  of  you,  once  more  to  be  embraced  by  an  aged 
Revolutionary  father,  or  to  receive  another,  perhaps  a  last,  bless 
ing,  bestowed  in  love  and  tears,  by  a  mother,  yet  surviving  to 
witness  and  to  enjoy  your  prosperity  and  happiness. 

But  if  family  associations  and  the  recollections  of  the  past 
bring  you  hither  with  greater  alacrity,  and  mingle  with  your 
greeting  much  of  local  attachment  and  private  affection,  greet 
ing  also  be  given,  free  and  hearty  greeting,  to  every  Ameri 
can  citizen  who  treads  this  sacred  soil  with  patriotic  feeling, 
and  respires  with  pleasure  in  an  atmosphere  perfumed  with  the 
recollections  of  1775 !  This  occasion  is  respectable,  nay,  it  is 
grand,  it  is  sublime,  by  the  nationality  of  its  sentiment.  Among 
the  seventeen  millions  of  happy  people  who  form  the  American 
community,  there  is  not  one  who  has  not  an  interest  in  this 
monument,  as  there  is  not  one  that  has  not  a  deep  and  abiding 
interest  in  that  which  it  commemorates. 

Woe  betide  the  man  who  brings  to  this  day's  worship  feeling 
less  than  wholly  American !  Woe  betide  the  man  who  can  stand 
here  with  the  fires  of  local  resentments  burning,  or  the  purpose 
of  fomenting  local  jealousies  and  the  strifes  of  local  interests 
festering  and  rankling  in  his  heart.  Union,  established  in  jus 
tice,  in  patriotism,  and  the  most  plain  and  obvious  common  in 
terest,  —  union,  founded  on  the  same  love  of  liberty,  cemented 
by  blood  shed  in  the  same  common  cause,  —  union  has  been  the 
source  of  all  our  glory  and  greatness  thus  far,  and  is  the  ground 
of  all  our  highest  hopes.  This  column  stands  on  Union.  I 
know  not  that  it  might  not  keep  its  position,  if  the  American 
Union,  in  the  rnad  conflict  of  human  passions,  and  in  the  strife 
of  parties  and  factions,  should  be  broken  up  and  destroyed.  I 
know  not  that  it  would  totter  and  fall  to  the  earth,  and  mingl 
8* 


90       COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL    MONUMENT. 

its  fragments  with  the  fragments  of  Liberty  and  the  Constitu 
tion,  when  State  should  be  separated  from  State,  and  faction 
and  dismemberment  obliterate  for  ever  all  the  hopes  of  the  found 
ers  of  our  republic,  and  the  great  inheritance  of  their  children. 
It  might  stand.  But  who,  from  beneath  the  weight  of  mortifi 
cation  and  shame  that  would  oppress  him,  could  look  up  to  be 
hold  it  ?  Whose  eyeballs  would  not  be  seared  by  such  a  spec 
tacle  ?  For  my  part,  should  I  live  to  such  a  time,  I  shall  avert 
my  eyes  from  it  for  ever. 

It  is  not  as  a  mere  military  encounter  of  hostile  armies,  that 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  presents  its  principal  claim  to  attention. 
Yet,  even  as  a  mere  battle,  there  were  circumstances  attending 
it  extraordinary  in  character,  and  entitling  it  to  peculiar  distinc 
tion.  It  was  fought  on  this  eminence ;  in  the  neighborhood  of 
yonder  city ;  in  the  presence  of  many  more  spectators  than  there 
were  combatants  in  the  conflict.  Men,  women,  and  children, 
from  every  commanding  position,  were  gazing  at  the  battle,  and 
looking  for  its  results  with  all  the  eagerness  natural  to  those  who 
knew  that  the  issue  was  fraught  with  the  deepest  consequences 
to  themselves,  personally,  as  well  as  to  their  country.  Yet, 
on  the  16th  of  June,  1775,  there  was  nothing  around  this  hill 
but  verdure  and  culture.  There  was,  indeed,  the  note  of  awful 
preparation  in  Boston.  There  was  the  Provincial  army  at 
Cambridge,  with  its  right  flank  resting  on  Dorchester,  and  its 
left  on  Chelsea.  But  here  all  was  peace.  Tranquillity  reigned 
around.  On  the  17th  every  thing  was  changed.  On  this  emi 
nence  had  arisen,  in  the  night,  a  redoubt,  built  by  Prescott,  and 
in  which  he  held  command.  Perceived  by  the  enemy  at  dawn, 
it  was  immediately  cannonaded  from  the  floating  batteries  in  the 
river,  and  from  the  opposite  shore.  And  then  ensued  the  hur 
ried  movement  in  Boston,  and  soon  the  troops  of  Britain  em 
barked  in  the  attempt  to  dislodge  the  Colonists.  In  an  hour 
every  thing  indicated  an  immediate  and  bloody  conflict.  Love 
of  liberty  on  one  side,  proud  defiance  of  rebellion  on  the  other ; 
hopes  and  fears,  and  courage  and  daring,  on  both  sides,  animat 
ed  the  hearts  of  the  combatants  as  they  hung  on  the  edge  of 
battle. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  to 
ascribe  to  the  leaders  on  either  side  any  just  motive  for  the  en 
gagement  which  followed.  On  the  one  hand,  it  could  not  have 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.        91 

been  very  important  to  the  Americans  to  attempt  to  hem  the 
British  within  the  town,  by  advancing  one  single  post  a  quarter 
of  a  mile ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  British  found  it  essen 
tial  to  dislodge  the  American  troops,  they  had  it  in  their  power 
at  no  expense  of  life.  By  moving  up  their  ships  and  batteries, 
they  could  have  completely  cut  off  all  communication  with  the 
mainland  over  the  Neck,  and  the  forces  in  the  redoubt  would 
have  been  reduced  to  a  state  of  famine  in  forty-eight  hours. 

But  that  was  not  the  day  for  any  such  consideration  on  either 
side !  Both  parties  were  anxious  to  try  the  strength  of  their 
arms.  The  pride  of  England  would  not  permit  the  rebels,  as  she 
termed  them,  to  defy  her  to  the  teeth ;  and,  without  for  a  mo 
ment  calculating  the  cost,  the  British  general  determined  to  de 
stroy  the  fort  immediately.  On  the  other  side,  Prescott  and  his 
gallant  followers  longed  and  thirsted  for  a  decisive  trial  ot 
strength  and  of  courage.  They  wished  a  battle,  and  wished  it 
at  once.  And  this  is  the  true  secret  of  the  movements  on  this 
hill. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  that  battle.  The  cannonading ; 
the  landing  of  the  British;  then*  advance;  the  coolness  with 
which  the  charge  was  met ;  the  repulse  ;  the  second  attack ;  the 
second  repulse ;  the  burning  of  Charlestown ;  and,  finally,  the 
closing  assault,  and  the  slow  retreat  of  the  Americans,  —  the  his 
tory  of  all  these  is  familiar. 

But  the  consequences  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  were  greater 
than  those  of  any  ordinary  conflict,  although  between  armies  of 
far  greater  force,  and  terminating  with  more  immediate  advan 
tage  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  It  was  the  first  great  battle 
of  the  Revolution ;  and  not  only  the  first  blow,  but  the  blow 
which  determined  the  contest.  It  did  not,  indeed,  put  an  end  to 
the  war,  but  in  the  then  existing  hostile  state  of  feeling,  the 
difficulties  could  only  be  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  the  sword. 
And  one  thing  is  certain ;  that  after  the  New  England  troops  had 
shown  themselves  able  to  face  and  repulse  the  regulars,  it  was 
decided  that  peace  never  could  be  established,  but  upon  the  ba 
sis  of  the  independence  of  the  Colonies.  When  the  sun  of  that 
day  went  down,  the  event  of  Independence  was  no  longer 
doubtful.  In  a  few  days  Washington  heard  of  the  battle,  and 
he  inquired  if  the  militia  had  stood  the  fire  of  the  regulars. 
When  told  that  they  had  not  only  stood  that  fire,  but  reserved 


92         COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

their  own  till  the  enemy  was  within  eight  rods,  and  then  poured 
it  in  with  tremendous  effect,  "  Then,"  exclaimed  he,  "  the  liber 
ties  of  the  country  are  safe ! " 

The  consequences  of  this  battle  were  just  of  the  same  impor 
tance  as  the  Revolution  itself. 

If  there  was  nothing  of  value  in  the  principles  of  the  Ameri 
can  Revolution,  then  there  is  nothing  valuable  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  and  its  consequences.  But  if  the  Revolution  was 
an  era  in  the  history  of  man  favorable  to  human  happiness,  if  it 
was  an  event  which  marked  the  progress  of  man  all  over  the 
world  from  despotism  to  liberty,  then  this  monument  is  not 
raised  without  cause.  Then  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  is  not  an 
event  undeserving  celebrations,  commemorations,  and  rejoicings, 
now  and  in  all  coming  times. 

What,  then,  is  the  true  and  peculiar  principle  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  of  the  systems  of  government  which  it  has  con 
firmed  and  established  ?  The  truth  is,  that  the  American  Revo 
lution  was  not  caused  by  the  instantaneous  discovery  of  princi 
ples  of  government  before  unheard  of,  or  the  practical  adoption 
of  political  ideas  such  as  had  never  before  entered  into  the 
minds  of  men.  It  was  but  the  full  development  of  principles  of 
government,  forms  of  society,  and  political  sentiments,  the  origin 
of  all  which  lay  back  two  centuries  in  English  and  American 
history. 

The  discovery  of  America,  its  colonization  by  the  nations  of 
Europe,  the  history  and  progress  of  the  colonies,  from  their  es 
tablishment  to  the  time  when  the  principal  of  them  threw  off 
then:  allegiance  to  the  respective  states  by  which  they  had  been 
planted,  and  founded  governments  of  their  own,  constitute  one 
of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the  annals  of  man.  These 
events  occupied  three  hundred  years ;  during  which  period  civil 
ization  and  knowledge  made  steady  progress  in  the  Old  World; 
so  that  Europe,  at  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  centu 
ry,  had  become  greatly  changed  from  that  Europe  which  began 
the  colonization  of  America  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth,  or  the 
commencement  of  the  sixteenth.  And  what  is  most  material  to 
my  present  purpose  is,  that  in  the  progress  of  the  first  of  these 
centuries,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  discovery  of  America  to  the 
settlements  of  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  political  and  relig 
ious  events  took  place,  which  most  materially  affected  the  state 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.         93 

of  society  and  the  sentiments  of  mankind,  especially  in  England 
and  in  parts  of  Continental  Europe.  After  a  few  feeble  and  un 
successful  efforts  by  England,  under  Henry  the  Seventh,  to  plant 
colonies  in  America,  no  designs  of  that  kind  were  prosecuted 
for  a  long  period,  either  by  the  English  government  or  any  of 
its  subjects.  Without  inquiring  into  the  causes  of  this  delay,  its 
consequences  are  sufficiently  clear  and  striking.  England,  in 
this  lapse  of  a  century,  unknown  to  herself,  but  under  the  provi 
dence  of  God  and  the  influence  of  events,  was  fitting  herself 
for  the  work  of  colonizing  North  America,  on  such  principles  and 
by  such  men,  as  should  spread  the  English  name  and  English 
blood,  in  time,  over  a  great  portion  of  the  Western  hemisphere. 
The  commercial  spirit  was  greatly  fostered  by  several  laws  passed 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh ;  and  in  the  same  reign  en 
couragement  was  given  to  arts  and  manufactures  in  the  eastern 
counties,  and  some  not  unimportant  modifications  of  the  feudal 
system  took  place,  by  allowing  the  breaking  of  entails.  These 
and  other  measures,  and  other  occurrences,  were  making  way 
for  a  new  class  of  society  to  emerge,  and  show  itself,  in  a  mili 
tary  and  feudal  age ;  a  middle  class,  between  the  barons  or 
great  landholders  and  the  retainers  of  the  crown,  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  tenants  of  the  crown  and  barons,  and  agricultural 
and  other  laborers,  on  the  other  side.  With  the  rise  and  growth 
of  this  new  class  of  society,  not  only  did  commerce  and  the  arts 
increase,  but  better  education,  a  greater  degree  of  knowledge, 
juster  notions  of  the  true  ends  of  government,  and  sentiments 
favorable  to  civil  liberty,  began  to  spread  abroad,  and  become 
more  and  more  common.  But  the  plants  springing  from  these 
seeds  were  of  slow  growth.  The  character  of  English  society 
had  indeed  begun  to  undergo  a  change ;  but  changes  of  national 
character  are  ordinarily  the  work  of  time.  Operative  causes  were, 
however,  evidently  in  existence,  and  sure  to  produce,  ultimately, 
their  proper  effect.  From  the  accession  of  Henry  the  Seventh 
to  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars,  England  enjoyed  much 
greater  exemption  from  war,  foreign  and  domestic,  than  for  a 
long  period  before,  and  during  the  controversy  between  the 
houses  of  York  and  Lancaster.  These  years  of  peace  were  fa 
vorable  to  commerce  and  the  arts.  Commerce  and  the  arts 
augmented  general  and  individual  knowledge ;  and  knowledge  is, 
the  on»V  fountain,  both  of  the  love  and  the  principles  of  human 
liberty. 


94      COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

Other  powerful  causes  soon  came  into  active  play.  The  Ref 
ormation  of  Luther  broke  out,  kindling  up  the  minds  of  men 
afresh,  leading  to  new  habits  of  thought,,  and  awakening  in  indi 
viduals  energies  before  unknown  even  to  themselves.  The  relig 
ious  controversies  of  this  period  changed  society,  as  well  as 
religion ;  indeed,  it  would  be  easy  to  prove,  if  this  occasion  were 
proper  for  it,  that  they  changed  society  to  a  considerable  extent, 
where  they  did  not  change  the  religion  of  the  state.  They 
changed  man  himself,  in  his  modes  of  thought,  his  conscious 
ness  of  his  own  powers,  and  his  desire  of  intellectual  attainment. 
The  spirit  of  commercial  and  foreign  adventure,  therefore,  on  the 
one  hand,  which  had  gained  so  much  strength  and  influence 
since  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  assertion  and  maintenance  of  religious  liberty,  having  their 
source  indeed  in  the  Reformation,  but  continued,  diversified,  and 
constantly  strengthened  by  the  subsequent  divisions  of  senti 
ment  and  opinion  among  the  Reformers  themselves,  and  this  love 
of  religious  liberty  drawing  after  it  or  bringing  along  with  it,  as 
it  always  does,  an  ardent  devotion  to  the  principle  of  civil  liber 
ty  also,  were  the  powerful  influences  under  which  character  was 
formed  and  men  trained,  for  the  great  work  of  introducing  Eng 
lish  civilization,  English  law,  and  what  is  more  than  all,  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood,  into  the  wilderness  of  North  America.  Raleigh  and 
his  companions  may  be  considered  as  the  creatures,  principally, 
of  the  first  of  these  causes.  High-spirited,  full  of  the  love  of  per 
sonal  adventure,  excited,  too,  in  some  degree,  by  the  hopes  of 
sudden  riches  from  the  discovery  of  mines  of  the  precious  met 
als,  and  not  unwilling  to  diversify  the  labors  of  settling  a  colony 
with  occasional  cruising  against  the  Spaniards  in  the  West  In 
dian  seas,  they  crossed  and  recrossed  the  ocean,  with  a  frequen 
cy  which  surprises  us,  when  we  consider  the  state  of  navigation, 
and  which  evinces  a  most  daring  spirit. 

The  other  cause  peopled  New  England.  The  Mayflower 
sought  our  shores  under  no  high-wrought  spirit  of  commercial 
adventure,  no  love  of  gold,  no  mixture  of  purpose  warlike  01 
hostile  to  any  human  being.  Like  the  dove  from  the  ark,  she 
had  put  forth  only  to  find  rest.  Solemn  supplications  on  the 
shore  of  the  sea,  in  Holland,  had  invoked  for  her,  at  her  depart 
ure,  the  blessings  of  Providence.  The  stars  which  guided  her 
were  the  unobscured  constellations  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.        95 

Her  deck  was  the  altar  of  the  living  God.  Fervent  prayers  on 
bended  knees,  mingled,  morning  and  evening,  with  the  voices  of 
ocean,  and  the  sighing  of  the  wind  in  her  shrouds.  Every  pros 
perous  breeze,  which,  gently  swelling  her  sails,  helped  the  Pil 
grims  onward  in  their  course,  awoke  new  anthems  of  praise ; 
and  when  the  elements  were  wrought  into  fury,  neither  the  tem 
pest,  tossing  their  fragile  bark  Hive  a  feather,  nor  the  darkness  and 
howling  of  the  midnight  storm,  ever  disturbed,  in  man  or  wom 
an,  the  firm  and  settled  purpose  of  their  souls,  to  undergo  ali> 
and  to  do  all,  that  the  meekest  patience,  the  boldest  resolution, 
and  the  highest  trust  in  God  could  enable  human  beings  to  suf 
fer  or  to  perform. 

Some  differences  may,  doubtless,  be  traced  at  this  day  be 
tween  the  descendants  of  the  early  colonists  of  Virginia  and 
those  of  New  England,  owing  to  the  different  influences  and  dif 
ferent  circumstances  under  which  the  respective  settlements  were 
made ;  but  only  enough  to  create  a  pleasing  variety  in  the  midst 
of  a  general  family  resemblance. 

"  Facies,  non  omnibus  una, 
Nee  diversa  tamen,  qualem  decet  esse  sororum." 

But  the  habits,  sentiments,  and  objects  of  both  soon  became 
modified  by  local  causes,  growing  out  of  their  condition  in  the 
New  World ;  and  as  this  condition  was  essentially  alike  in  both, 
and  as  both  at  once  adopted  the  same  general  rules  and  princi 
ples  of  English  jurisprudence,  and  became  accustomed  to  the 
authority  of  representative  bodies,  these  differences  gradually  di 
minished.  They  disappeared  by  the  progress  of  time,  and  the 
influence  of  intercourse.  The  necessity  of  some  degree  of  union 
and  cooperation  to  defend  themselves  against  the  savage  tribes, 
tended  to  excite  in  them  mutual  respect  and  regard.  They 
fought  together  in  the  wars  against  France.  The  great  and 
common  cause  of  the  Revolution  bound  them  to  one  another  by 
new  links  of  brotherhood ;  and  at  length  the  present  constitution 
of  government  united  them  happily  and  gloriously,  to  form  the 
great  republic  of  the  world,  and  bound  up  their  interests  and 
fortunes,  till  the  whole  earth  sees  that  there  is  now  for  them,  in 
present  possession  as  well  as  in  future  hope,  but  "  One  Country, 
One  Constitution,  and  One  Destiny." 

The  colonization  of  the  tropical  region,  and  the  whole  of  the 


96        COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

southern  parts  of  the  continent,  by  Spain  and  Portugal,  was 
conducted  on  other  principles,  under  the  influence  of  other  mo 
tives,  and  followed  by  far  different  consequences.  From  the 
time  of  its  discovery,  the  Spanish  government  pushed  forward 
its  settlements  in  America,  not  only  with  vigor,  but  with  eager 
ness  ;  so  that  long  before  the  first  permanent  English  settlement 
had  been  accomplished  in  what  is  now  the  United  States,  Spain 
had  conquered  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chili,  and  stretched  her  power 
over  nearly  all  the  territory  she  ever  acquired  on  this  continent. 
The  rapidity  of  these  conquests  is  to  be  ascribed  in  a  great  de 
gree  to  the  eagerness,  not  to  say  the  rapacity,  of  those  numerous 
bands  of  adventurers,  who  were  stimulated  by  individual  inter 
ests  and  private  hopes  to  subdue  immense  regions,  and  take 
possession  of  them  in  the  name  of  the  crown  of  Spain.  The 
mines  of  gold  and  silver  were  the  incitements  to  these  efforts, 
and  accordingly  settlements  were  generally  made,  and  Spanish 
authority  established  immediately  on  the  subjugation  of  territo 
ry,  that  the  native  population  might  be  set  to  work  by  their  new 
Spanish  masters  in  the  mines.  From  these  facts,  the  love  of 
gold  —  gold,  not  produced  by  industry,  nor  accumulated  by 
commerce,  but  gold  dug  from  its  native  bed  in  the  bowels  of 
the  earth,  and  that  earth  ravished  from  its  rightful  possessors  by 
every  possible  degree  of  enormity,  cruelty,  and  crime  —  was  long 
the  governing  passion  in  Spanish  wars  and  Spanish  settlements 
in  America.  Even  Columbus  himself  did  not  wholly  escape  the 
influence  of  this  base  motive.  In  his  early  voyages  we  find  him 
passing  from  island  to  island,  inquiring  everywhere  for  gold  ;  as 
if  God  had  opened  the  New  World  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Old, 
only  to  gratify  a  passion  equally  senseless  and  sordid,  and  to 
offer  up  millions  of  an  unoffending  race  of  men  to  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  sword,  sharpened  both  by  cruelty  and  rapacity.  And 
yet  Columbus  was  far  above  his  age  and  country.  Enthusiastic, 
indeed,  but  sober,  religious,  and  magnanimous ;  born  to  great 
things  and  capable  of  high  sentiments,  as  his  noble  discourse  be 
fore  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  as  well  as  the  whole  history  of  his 
life,  shows.  Probably  he  sacrificed  much  to  the  known  senti 
ments  of  others,  and  addressed  to  his  followers  motives  likely  to 
influence  them.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  evident  that  he  himself 
looked  upon  the  world  which  he  discovered  as  a  world  of  wealth, 
all  ready  to  be  seized  and  enjoyed. 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.        97 

The  conquerors  and  the  European  settlers  of  Spanish  Amer 
ica  were  mainly  military  commanders  and  common  soldiers. 
The  monarchy  of  Spain  was  not  transferred  to  this  hemisphere, 
but  it  acted  in  it,  as  it  acted  at  home,  through  its  ordinary 
means,  and  its  true  representative,  military  force.  The  robbery 
and  destruction  of  the  native  race  was  the  achievement  of  stand 
ing  armies,  in  the  right  of  the  king,  and  by  his  authority,  fight 
ing  in  his  name,  for  the  aggrandizement  of  his  power  and  the 
extension  of  his  prerogatives,  with  military  ideas  under  arbi 
trary  maxims,  —  a  portion  of  that  dreadful  instrumentality  by 
which  a  perfect  despotism  governs  a  people.  As  there  was  no 
liberty  in  Spain,  how  could  liberty  be  transmitted  to  Spanish 
colonies  ? 

The  colonists  of  English  America  were  of  the  people,  and  a 
people  already  free.  They  were  of  the  middle,  industrious,  and 
already  prosperous  class,  the  inhabitants  of  commercial  and 
manufacturing  cities,  among  whom  liberty  first  revived  and 
respired,  after  a  sleep  of  a  thousand  years  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Dark  Ages.  Spain  descended  on  the  New  World  in  the  armed 
and  terrible  image  of  her  monarchy  and  her  soldiery ;  England 
approached  it  in  the  winning  and  popular  garb  of  personal 
rights,  public  protection,  and  civil  freedom.  England  trans 
planted  liberty  to  America ;  Spain  transplanted  power.  Eng 
land,  through  the  agency  of  private  companies  and  the  efforts 
of  individuals,  colonized  this  part  of  North  America  by  indus 
trious  individuals,  making  their  own  way  in  the  wilderness, 
defending  themselves  against  the  savages,  recognizing  their 
right  to  the  soil,  and  with  a  general  honest  purpose  of  introduc 
ing  knowledge  as  well  as  Christianity  among  them.  Spain 
stooped  on  South  America,  like  a  vulture  on  its  prey.  Every 
thing  was  force.  Territories  were  acquired  by  fire  and  sword. 
Cities  were  destroyed  by  fire  and  sword.  Hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  human  beings  fell  by  fire  and  sword.  Even  conversion 
to  Christianity  was  attempted  by  fire  and  sword. 

Behold,  then,  fellow-citizens,  the  difference  resulting  from  the 
operation  of  the  two  principles !  Here,  to-day,  on  the  summit 
of  Bunker  Hill,  and  at  the  foot  of  this  monument,  behold  the 
difference !  I  would  that  the  fifty  thousand  voices  present  could 
proclaim  it  with  a  shout  which  should  be  heard  over  the  globe. 
Our  inheritance  was  of  Liberty,  secured  and  regulated  by  law, 

VOL.  i.  9 


98        COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

and  enlightened  by  religion  and  knowledge;  that  of  South 
America  was  of  power,  stern,  unrelenting,  tyrannical,  military 
power.  And  now  look  to  the  consequences  of  the  two  princi 
ples  on  the  general  and  aggregate  happiness  of  the  human  race. 
Behold  the  results,  in  all  the  regions  conquered  by  Cortez  and 
Pizarro,  and  the  contrasted  results  here.  I  suppose  the  terri 
tory  of  the  United  States  may  amount  to  one  eighth,  or  one 
tenth,  of  that  colonized  by  Spain  on  this  continent ;  and  yet  in 
ah1  that  vast  region  there  are  but  between  one  and  two  millions 
of  people  of  European  color  and  European  blood,  while  in 
the  United  States  there  are  fourteen  millions  who  rejoice  in 
their  descent  from  the  people  of  the  more  northern  part  of  Eu 
rope. 

But  we  may  follow  the  difference  in  the  original  principle  of 
colonization,  and  in  its  character  and  objects,  still  further.  We 
must  look  to  moral  and  intellectual  results ;  we  must  consider 
consequences,  not  only"  as  they  show  themselves  in  hastening  or 
retarding  the  increase  of  population  and  the  supply  of  phys 
ical  wants,  but  in  their  civilization,  improvement,  and  hap 
piness.  We  must  inquire  what  progress  has  been  made  in  the 
true  science  of  liberty,  in  the  knowledge  of  the  great  principles 
of  self-government,  and  in  the  progress  of  man,  as  a  social, 
moral,  and  religious  being. 

I  would  not  willingly  say  any  thing  on  this  occasion  dis 
courteous  to  the  new  governments  founded  on  the  demolition 
of  the  power  of  the  Spanish  monarchy.  They  are  yet  on  their 
trial,  and  I  hope  for  a  favorable  result.  But  truth,  sacred  truth, 
and  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty,  compel  me  to  say,  that 
hitherto  they  have  discovered  quite  too  much  of  the  spirit  of 
that  monarchy  from  which  they  separated  themselves.  Quite 
too  frequent  resort  is  made  to  military  force ;  and  quite  too  much 
of  the  substance  of  the  people  is  consumed  in  maintaining 
armies,  not  for  defence  against  foreign  aggression,  but  for  en 
forcing  obedience  to  domestic  authority.  Standing  armies  are 
the  oppressive  instruments  for  governing  the  people,  in  the  hands 
of  hereditary  and  arbitrary  monarchs.  A  military  republic,  a 
government  founded  on  mock  elections,  and  supported  only  by 
the  sword,  is  a  movement  indeed,  but  a  retrograde  and  disas 
trous  movement,  from  the  regular  and  old-fashioned  monarchical 
systems.  If  men  would  enjoy  the  blessings  of  republican  gov- 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.       99 

eminent,  they  must  govern  themselves  by  reason,  by  mutual 
counsel  and  consultation,  by  a  sense  and  feeling  of  general  in 
terest,  and  by  the  acquiescence  of  the  minority  in  the  will  of 
the  majority,  properly  expressed;  and,  above  all,  the  military 
must  be  kept,  according  to  the  language  of  our  Bill  of  Rights,  in 
strict  subordination  to  the  civil  authority.  Wherever  this  lesson 
is  not  both  learned  and  practised,  there  can  be  no  political  free 
dom.  Absurd,  preposterous  is  it,  a  scoff  and  a  satire  on  free 
forms  of  constitutional  liberty,  for  frames  of  government  to  be 
prescribed  by  military  leaders,  and  the  right  of  suffrage  to  be 
exercised  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

Making  all  allowance  for  situation  and  climate,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  by  intelligent  minds,  that  the  difference  now  existing 
between  North  and  South  America  is  justly  attributable,  in  a 
great  degree,  to  political  institutions  in  the  Old  World  and  in 
the  New.  And  how  broad  that  difference  is !  Suppose  an 
assembly,  in  one  of  the  valleys  or  on  the  side  of  one  of  the 
mountains  of  the  southern  half  of  the  hemisphere,  to  be  held, 
this  day,  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  large  city ;  —  what  would  be 
the  scene  presented?  Yonder  is  a  volcano,  flaming  and  smok 
ing,  but  shedding  no  light,  moral  or  intellectual.  At  its  foot  is 
the  mine,  sometimes  yielding,  perhaps,  large  gains  to  capital, 
but  in  which  labor  is  destined  to  eternal  and  unrequited  toil, 
and  followed  only  by  penury  and  beggary.  The  city  is  filled 
with  armed  men ;  not  a  free  people,  armed  and  coming  forth 
voluntarily  to  rejoice  in  a  public  festivity,  but  hireling  troops, 
supported  by  forced  loans,  excessive  impositions  on  commerce, 
or  taxes  wrung  from  a  half-fed  and  a  half-clothed  population. 
For  the  great  there  are  palaces  covered  with  gold ;  for  the  poor 
there  are  hovels  of  the  meanest  sort.  There  is  an  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy,  enjoying  the  wealth  of  princes;  but  there  are  no 
means  of  education  for  the  people.  Do  public  improvements 
favor  intercourse  between  place  and  place  ?  So  far  from  this, 
the  traveller  cannot  pass  from  town  to  town,  without  danger, 
every  mile,  of  robbery  and  assassination.  I  would  not  over 
charge  or  exaggerate  this  picture ;  but  its  principal  features  are 
all  too  truly  sketched. 

And  how  does  it  contrast  with  the  scene  now  actually  before 
us  ?  Look  round  upon  these  fields ;  they  are  verdant  and  beau 
tiful,  well  cultivated,  and  at  this  moment  loaded  with  the  riches 


100     COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

of  the  early  harvest.  The  hands  which  till  them  are  those  of 
the  free  owners  of  the  soil,  enjoying  equal  rights,  and  protected 
by  law  from  oppression  and  tyranny.  Look  to  the  thousand 
vessels  in  our  sight,  filling  the  harbor,  or  covering  the  neighbor 
ing  sea.  They  are  the  vehicles  of  a  profitable  commerce,  car 
ried  on  by  men  who  know  that  the  profits  of  their  hardy  enter 
prise,  when  they  make  them,  are  their  own ;  and  this  commerce 
is  encouraged  and  regulated  by  wise  laws,  and  defended,  when 
need  be,  by  the  valor  and  patriotism  of  the  country.  Look  to 
that  fair  city,  the  abode  of  so  much  diffused  wealth,  so  much 
general  happiness  and  comfort,  so  much  personal  independence, 
and  so  much  general  knowledge,  and  not  undistinguished,  I 
may  be  permitted  to  add,  for  hospitality  and  social  refinement. 
She  fears  no  forced  contributions,  no  siege  or  sacking  from  mili 
tary  leaders  of  rival  factions.  The  hundred  temples  in  which 
her  citizens  worship  God  are  in  no  danger  of  sacrilege.  The 
regular  administration  of  the  laws  encounters  no  obstacle.  The 
long  processions  of  children  and  youth,  which  you  see  this  day, 
issuing  by  thousands  from  her  free  schools,  prove  the  care  and 
anxiety  with  which  a  popular  government  provides  for  the  edu 
cation  and  morals  of  the  people.  Everywhere  there  is  order; 
everywhere  there  is  security.  Everywhere  the  law  reaches  to 
the  highest  and  reaches  to  the  lowest,  to  protect  all  in  their 
rights,  and  to  restrain  all  from  wrong ;  and  over  all  hovers  liber 
ty  ;  that  liberty  for  which  our  fathers  fought  and  fell  on  this  very 
spot,  with  her  eye  ever  watchful,  and  her  eagle  wing  ever  wide 
outspread. 

The  colonies  of  Spain,  from  their  origin  to  their  end,  were 
subject  to  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  mother  country.  Their 
government,  as  well  as  their  commerce,  was  a  strict  home  mo 
nopoly.  If  we  add  to  this  the  established  usage  of  filling  im 
portant  posts  in  the  administration  of  the  colonies  exclusively 
by  natives  of  Old  Spain,  thus  cutting  oft'  for  ever  all  hopes  of 
honorable  preferment  from  every  man  born  in  the  Western  hemi 
sphere,  causes  enough  rise  up  before  us  at  once  to  account  fully 
for  the  subsequent  history  and  character  of  these  provinces. 
The  viceroys  and  provincial  governors  of  Spain  were  never  at 
home  in  their  governments  in  America.  They  did  not  feel  that 
they  were  of  the  people  whom  they  governed.  Their  official 
character  and  employment  have  a  good  deal  of  resemblance  to 


COMPLETION   OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.     101 

ihose  of  the  proconsuls  of  Rome,  in  Asia,  Sicily,  and  Gaul; 
but  obviously  no  resemblance  to  those  of  Carver  and  Win- 
throp,  and  very  little  to  those  of  the  governors  of  Virginia 
after  that  Colony  had  established  a  popular  House  of  Bur 
gesses. 

The  English  colonists  in  America,  generally  speaking,  were 
men  who  were  seeking  new  homes  in  a  new  world.  They 
brought  with  them  their  families  and  all  that  was  most  dear 
to  them.  This  was  especially  the  case  with  the  colonists  of 
Plymouth  and  Massachusetts.  Many  of  them  were  educated 
men,  and  all  possessed  their  full  share,  according  to  their  social 
condition,  of  the  knowledge  and  attainments  of  that  age.  The 
distinctive  characteristic  of  their  settlement  is  the  introduction 
of  the  civilization  of  Europe  into  a  wilderness,  without  bringing 
with  it  the  political  institutions  of  Europe.  The  arts,  sciences, 
and  literature  of  England  came  over  with  the  settlers.  That 
great  portion  of  the  common  law  which  regulates  the  social  and 
personal  relations  and  conduct  of  men,  came  also.  The  jury 
came ;  the  habeas  corpus  came ;  the  testamentary  power  came ; 
and  the  law  of  inheritance  and  descent  came  also,  except  that 
part  of  it  which  recognizes  the  rights  of  primogeniture,  which 
either  did  not  come  at  all,  or  soon  gave  way  to  the  rule  of  equal 
partition  of  estates  among  children.  But  the  monarchy  did  not 
come,  nor  the  aristocracy,  nor  the  church,  as  an  estate  of  the 
realm.  Political  institutions  were  to  be  framed  anew,  such  as 
should  be  adapted  to  the  state  of  things.  But  it  could  not  be 
doubtful  what  should  be  the  nature  and  character  of  these  in 
stitutions."  A  general  social  equality  prevailed  among  the  set 
tlers,  and  an  equality  of  political  rights  seemed  the  natural,  if 
not  the  necessary  consequence.  After  forty  years  of  revolution, 
violence,  and  war,  the  people  of  France  have  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  fundamental  instrument  of  their  government,  as  the  great 
boon  obtained  by  all  their  sufferings  and  sacrifices,  the  declara 
tion  that  all  Frenchmen  are  equal  before  the  law.  What  France 
has  reached  only  by  the  expenditure  of  so  much  blood  and 
treasure,  and  the  perpetration  of  so  much  crime,  the  English 
colonists  obtained  by  simply  changing  their  place,  carrying  with 
them  the  intellectual  and  moral  culture  of  Europe,  and  the  per 
sonal  and  social  relations  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  but 
leaving  behind  their  political  institutions.  It  has  been  said, 
9* 


102     COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

with  much  vivacity,  that  the  felicity  of  the  American  colonists 
consisted  in  their  escape  from  the  past.  This  is  true  so  far  as 
respects  political  establishments,  but  no  further.  They  brought 
with  them  a  full  portion  of  all  the  riches  of  the  past,  in  science, 
in  art,  in  morals,  religion,  and  literature.  The  Bible  came  with 
them.  And  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  that  to  the  free  and  univer 
sal  reading  of  the  Bible,  in  that  age,  men  were  much  indebted 
for  right  views  of  civil  liberty.  The  Bible  is  a  book  of  faith, 
and  a  book  of  doctrine,  and  a  book  of  morals,  and  a  book  of  re 
ligion,  of  especial  revelation  from  God;  but  it  is  also  a  book 
which  teaches  man  his  own  individual  responsibility,  his  own 
dignity,  and  his  equality  with  his  fellow-man. 

Bacon  and  Locke,  and  Shakspeare  and  Milton,  also  came 
with  the  colonists.  It  was  the  object  of  the  first  settlers  to  form 
new  political  systems,  but  all  that  belonged  to  cultivated  man, 
to  family,  to  neighborhood,  to  social  relations,  accompanied 
them.  In  the  Doric  phrase  of  one  of  our  own  historians,  "  they 
came  to  settle  on  bare  creation " ;  but  their  settlement  in  the 
wilderness,  nevertheless,  was  not  a  lodgement  of  nomadic  tribes, 
a  mere  resting-place  of  roaming  savages.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  a  permanent  community,  the  fixed  residence  of  cultivated 
men.  Not  only  was  English  literature  read,  but  English,  good 
English,  was  spoken  and  written,  before  the  axe  had  made  way 
to  let  in  the  sun  upon  the  habitations  and  fields  of  Plymouth 
and  Massachusetts.  And  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contra 
ry,  a  correct  use  of  the  English  language  is,  at  this  day,  more 
general  throughout  the  United  States,  than  it  is  throughout 
England  herself. 

But  another  grand  characteristic  is,  that,  in  the  English  colo 
nies,  political  affairs  were  left  to  be  managed  by  the  colonists 
themselves.  This  is  another  fact  wholly  distinguishing  them  in 
character,  as  it  has  distinguished  them  in  fortune,  from  the  colo 
nists  of  Spain.  Here  lies  the  foundation  of  that  experience  in 
self-government,  which  has  preserved  order,  and  security,  and 
regularity,  amidst  the  play  of  popular  institutions.  Home  gov 
ernment  was  the  secret  of  the  prosperity  of  the  North  American 
settlements.  The  more  distinguished  of  the  New  England  col 
onists,  with  a  most  remarkable  sagacity  and  a  long-sighted  reach 
into  futurity,  refused  to  come  to  America  unless  they  could 
bring  with  them  charters  providing  for  the  administration  of 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.     103 

their  affairs  in  this  country.*  They  saw  from  the  first  the  evils 
of  being  governed  in  the  New  World  by  a  power  fixed  in  the 
Old.  Acknowledging  the  general  superiority  of  the  crown,  they 
still  insisted  on  the  right  of  passing  local  laws,  and  of  local  ad 
ministration.  And  history  teaches  us  the  justice  and  the  value 
of  this  determination  in  the  example  of  Virginia.  The  early 
attempts  to  settle  that  Colony  failed,  sometimes  with  the  most 
melancholy  and  fatal  consequences,  from  want  of  knowledge, 
care,  and  attention  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  the  charge  of 
their  affairs  in  England;  and  it  was  only  after  the  issuing  of  the 
third  charter,  that  its  prosperity  fairly  commenced.  The  cause 
was,  that  by  that  third  charter  the  people  of  Virginia,  for  by 
this  time  they  deserve  to  be  so  called,  were  allowed  to  constitute 
and  establish  the  first  popular  representative  assembly  which 
ever  convened  on  this  continent,  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur 
gesses. 

The  great  elements,  then,  of  the  American  system  of  govern 
ment,  originally  introduced  by  the  colonists,  and  which  were 
early  in  operation,  and  ready  to  be  developed,  more  and  more, 
as  the  progress  of  events  should  justify  or  demand,  were,  — 

Escape  from  the  existing  political  systems  of  Europe,  includ 
ing  its  religious  hierarchies,  but  the  continued  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  its  science  and  arts,  its  literature,  and  its  manners ; 

Home  government,  or  the  power  of  making  in  the  colony  the 
municipal  laws  which  were  to  govern  it ; 

Equality  of  rights ; 

Representative  assemblies,  or  forms  of  government  founded 
on  popular  elections. 

Few  topics  are  more  inviting,  or  more  fit  for  philosophical 
discussion,  than  the  effect  on  the  happiness  of  mankind  of  in 
stitutions  founded  upon  these  principles ;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
influence  of  the  New  World  upon  the  Old. 

Her  obligations  to  Europe  for  science  and  art,  laws,  literature, 
and  manners,  America  acknowledges  as  she  ought,  with  respect 
and  gratitude.  The  people  of  the  United  States,  descendants  oi 
the  English  stock,  grateful  for  the  treasures  of  knowledge  de- 

*  See  the  "  Records  of  the  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  Eng 
land,"  as  published  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  An 
tiquarian  Society,  pp.  47-50. 


104     COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

rived  from  their  English  ancestors,  admit  also,  with  thanks  and 
filial  regard,  that  among  those  ancestors,  under  the  culture  of 
Hampden  and  Sydney  and  other  assiduous  friends,  that  seed 
of  popular  liberty  first  germinated,  which  on  our  soil  has  shot 
up  to  its  full  height,  until  its  branches  overshadow  all  the  land. 

But  America  Has  not  failed  to  make  returns.  If  she  has  not 
wholly  cancelled  the  obligation,  or  equalled  it  by  others  of  like 
weight,  she  has,  at  least,  made  respectable  advances  towards 
repaying  the  debt.  And  she  admits,  that,  standing  in  the  midst 
of  civilized  nations,  and  in  a  civilized  age,  a  nation  among 
nations,  there  is  a  high  part  which  she  is  expected  to  act,  for  the 
general  advancement  of  human  interests  and  human  welfare. 

American  mines  have  filled  the  mints  of  Europe  with  the 
precious  metals.  The  productions  of  the  American  soil  and 
climate  have  poured  out  their  abundance  of  luxuries  for  the 
tables  of  the  rich,  and  of  necessaries  for  the  sustenance  of  the 
poor.  Birds  and  animals  of  beauty  and  value  have  been  added 
to  the  European  stocks ;  and  transplantations  from  the  un 
equalled  riches  of  our  forests  have  mingled  themselves  profusely 
with  the  elms,  and  ashes,  and  Druidical  oaks  of  England. 

America  has  made  contributions  to  Europe  far  more  impor 
tant.  Who  can  estimate  the  amount,  or  the  value,  of  the  aug 
mentation  of  the  commerce  of  the  world  that  has  resulted  from 
America  ?  Who  can  imagine  to  himself  what  would  now  be 
the  shock  to  the  Eastern  Continent,  if  the  Atlantic  were  no 
longer  traversable,  or  if  there  were  no  longer  American  produc 
tions,  or  American  markets  ? 

But  America  exercises  influences,  or  holds  out  examples,  for 
the  consideration  of  the  Old  World,  of  a  much  higher,  because 
they  are  of  a  moral  and  political  character. 

America  has  furnished  to  Europe  proof  of  the  fact,  that  pop 
ular  institutions,  founded  on  equality  and  the  principle  of  repre 
sentation,  are  capable  of  maintaining  governments,  able  to 
secure  the  rights  of  person,  property,  and  reputation. 

America  has  proved  that  it  is  practicable  to  elevate  the  mass 
of  mankind,  —  that  portion  which  in  Europe  is  called  the  labor 
ing,  or  lower  class,  —  to  raise  them  to  self-respect,  to  make  them 
competent  to  act  a  part  in  the  great  right  and  great  duty  of 
self-government ;  and  she  has  proved  that  this  may  be  done  by 
education  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge.  She  holds  out  an 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.     105 

example,  a  thousand  times  more  encouraging  than  ever  was 
presented  before,  to  those  nine  tenths  of  the  human  race  who 
are  born  without  hereditary  fortune  or  hereditary  rank. 

America  has  furnished  to  the  world  the  character  of  Wash 
ington!  And  if  our  American  institutions  had  done  nothing 
else,  that  alone  would  have  entitled  them  to  the  respect  of 
mankind. 

Washington !  "  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen !  "  Washington  is  all  our  own !  The 
enthusiastic  veneration  and  regard  in  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  hold  him  prove  them  to  be  worthy  of  such  a 
countryman ;  while  his  reputation  abroad  .reflects  the  highest 
honor  on  his  country.  I  would  cheerfully  put  the  question  to 
day  to  the  intelligence  of  Europe  and  the  world,  what  character 
of  the  century,  upon  the  whole,  stands  out  in  the  relief  of  his 
tory,  most  pure,  most  respectable,  most  sublime ;  and  I  doubt 
not,  that,  by  a  suffrage  approaching  to  unanimity,  the  answer 
would  be  Washington ! 

The  structure  now  standing  before  us,  by  its  uprightness,  its 
solidity,  its  durability,  is  no  unfit  emblem  of  his  character.  His 
public  virtues  and  public  principles  were  as  firm  as  the  earth  on 
which  it  stands;  his  personal  motives,  as  pure  as  the  serene 
heaven  in  which  its  summit  is  lost.  But,  indeed,  though  a  fit, 
it  is  an  inadequate  emblem.  Towering  high  above  the  column 
which  our  hands  have  builded,  beheld,  not  by  the  inhabitants 
of  a  single  city  or  a  single  State,  but  by  all  the  families  of  man, 
ascends  the  colossal  grandeur  of  the  character  and  life  of  Wash 
ington.  In  all  the  constituents  of  the  one,  in  all  the  acts  of  the 
other,  in  all  its  titles  to  immortal  love,  admiration,  and  renown, 
it  is  an  American  production.  It  is  the  embodiment  and  vin 
dication  of  our  Transatlantic  liberty.  Born  upon  our  soil,  of 
parents  also  born  upon  it ;  never  for  a  moment  having  had  sight 
of  the  Old  World;  instructed,  according  to  the  modes  of  his 
time,  only  in  the  spare,  plain,  but  wholesome  elementary  knowl 
edge  which  our  institutions  provide  for  the  children  of  the  peo 
ple  ;  growing  up  beneath  and  penetrated  by  the  genuine  influ 
ences  of  American  society;  living  from  infancy  to  manhood 
and  age  amidst  our  expanding,  but  not  luxurious  civilization ; 
partaking  in  our  great  destiny  of  labor,  our  long  contest  with 
unreclaimed  nature  and  uncivilized  man,  our  agony  of  glory, 


106     COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT. 

the  war  of  Independence,  our  great  victory  of  peace,  the  for 
mation  of  the  Union,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution  ; 
he  is  all,  all  our  own !  Washington  is  ours.  That  crowded 
and  glorious  life, 

"  Where  multitudes  of  virtues  passed  along, 
Each  pressing  foremost,  in  the  mighty  throng 
Ambitious  to  be  seen,  then  making  room 
For  greater  multitudes  that  were  to  come,"  — 

that  life  was  the  life  of  an  American  citizen. 

I  claim  him  for  America.  In  all  the  perils,  in  every  darkened 
moment  of  the  state,  in  the  midst  of  the  reproaches  of  enemies 
and  the  misgiving  of  friends,  I  turn  to  that  transcendent  name 
for  courage  and  for  consolation.  To  him  who  denies  or  doubts 
whether  our  fervid  liberty  can  be  combined  with  law,  with  order, 
with  the  security  of  property,  with  the  pursuits  and  advance 
ment  of  happiness ;  to  him  who  denies  that  our  forms  of  gov 
ernment  are  capable  of  producing  exaltation  of  soul,  and  the 
passion  of  true  glory ;  to  him  who  denies  that  we  have  con 
tributed  any  thing  to  the  stock  of  great  lessons  and  great  ex 
amples  ;  —  to  all  these  I  reply  by  pointing  to  Washington ! 

And  now,  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  it  is  time  to  bring  this 
discourse  to  a  close. 

We  have  indulged  in  gratifying  recollections  of  the  past,  in 
the  prosperity  and  pleasures  of  the  present,  and  in  high  hopes 
for  the  future.  But  let  us  remember  that  we  have  duties  and 
obligations  to  perform,  corresponding  to  the  blessings  which  we 
enjoy.  Let  us  remember  the  trust,  the  sacred  trust,  attaching  to 
the  rich  inheritance  which  we  have  received  from  our  fathers. 
Let  us  feel  our  personal  responsibility,  to  the  full  extent  of  our 
power  and  influence,  for  the  preservation  of  the  principles  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  And  let  us  remember  that  it  is  only 
religion,  and  morals,  and  knowledge,  that  can  make  men  re 
spectable  and  happy,  under  any  form  of  government.  Let  us 
hold  fast  the  great  truth,  that  communities  are  responsible,  as 
well  as  individuals ;  that  no  government  is  respectable,  which  is 
not  just ;  that  without  unspotted  purity  of  public  faith,  without 
sacred  public  principle,  fidelity,  and  honor,  no  mere  -forms  of 
government,  no  machinery  of  laws,  can  give  dignity  to  political 
society.  In  our  day  and  generation  let  us  seek  to  raise  and  im- 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.      107 

prove  the  moral  sentiment,  so  that  \ve  may  look,  not  for  a 
degraded,  but  for  an  elevated  and  improved  future.  And  when 
both  we  and  our  children  shall  have  been  consigned  to  the  house 
appointed  for  all  living,  may  love  of  country  and  pride  of  coun 
try  glow  with  equal  fervor  among  those  to  whom  our  names 
and  our  blood  shall  have  descended !  And  then,  when  honored 
and  decrepit  age  shall  lean  against  the  base  of  this  monument, 
and  troops  of  ingenuous  youth  shall  be  gathered  round  it,  and 
when  the  one  shall  speak  to  the  other  of  its  objects,  the  pur 
poses  of  its  construction,  and  the  great  and  glorious  events  with 
which  it  is  connected,  there  shall  rise  from  every  youthful  breast 
the  ejaculation,  "  Thank  God,  I  —  I  also  —  AM  AN  AMERICAN  ! " 


NOTE. 


Page   87. 

THE  following  description  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  and  Square  is 
from  Mr.  Frothingham's  History  of  the  Siege  of  Boston,  pp.  355,  356. 

"  Monument  Square  is  four  hundred  and  seventeen  feet  from  north  to 
south,  and  four  hundred  feet  from  east  to  west,  and  contains  nearly  six 
acres.  It  embraces  the  whole  site  of  the  redoubt,  and  a  part  of  the  site 
of  the  breastwork.  According  to  the  most  accurate  plan  of  the  town  and 
the  battle  (Page's),  the  monument  stands  where  the  southwest  angle  of 
the  redoubt  was,  and  the  whole  of  the  redoubt  was  between  the  monu 
ment  and  the  street  that  bounds  it  on  the  west.  The  small  mound  in  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  square  is  supposed  to  be  the  remains  of  the  breast 
work.  Warren  fell  about  two  hundred  feet  west  of  the  monument.  An 
iron  fence  incloses  the  square,  and  another  surrounds  the  monument. 
The  square  has  entrances  on  each  of  its  sides,  and  at  each  of  its  corners, 
and  is  surrounded  by  a  walk  and  rows  of  trees. 

"  The  obelisk  is  thirty  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base,  about  fifteen  feet  at 
the  top  of  the  truncated  part,  and  was  designed  to  be  two  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  high ;  but  the  mortar  and  the  seams  between  the  stones  make 
the  precise  height  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  feet.  Within  the  shaft 
is  a  hollow  cone,  with  a  spiral  stairway  winding  round  it  to  its  summit, 
which  enters  a  circular  chamber  at  the  top.  There  are  ninety  courses  of 
stone  in  the  shaft,  —  six  of  them  below  the  ground,  and  eighty-four  above 
the  ground.  The  capstone,  or  apex,  is  a  single  stone,  four  feet  square 
at  the  base,  and  three  feet  six  inches  in  height,  weighing  two  and  a  halt 
tons." 


ADAMS    AND   JEFFERSON 


VOL.  I.  10 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


SINCE  the  decease  of  General  Washington,  on  the  14th  of  December. 
1799,  the  public  mind  has  never  been  so  powerfully  affected  in  this  part 
of  the  country  by  any  similar  event,  as  by  the  death  of  John  Adams,  oil 
the  4th  of  July,  1826.  The  news  reached  Boston  in  the  evening  of  that 
day.  The  decease  of  this  venerable  fellow-citizen  must  at  all  times  have 
appealed  with  much  force  to  the  patriotic  sympathies  of  the  people  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  It  acquired  a  singular  interest  from  the  year  and  the  day  on 
which  it  took  place  ;  —  the  4th  of  July  of  the  year  completing  the  half 
century  from  that  ever  memorable  era  in  the  history  of  this  country  and 
the  world,  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  a  measure  in  which  Mr. 
Adams  himself  had  taken  so  distinguished  a  part.  The  emotions  of 
the  public  v/ere  greatly  increased  by  the  indications  given  by  Mr.  Adams 
in  his  last  hours,  that  he  was  fully  aware  that  the  day  was  the  anniver 
sary  of  Independence,  and  by  his  dying  allusion  to  the  supposed  fact  that 
his  colleague,  Jefferson,  survived  him.  When,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days,  the  news  arrived  from  Virginia,  that  he  also  had  departed  this  life, 
on  the  same  day  and  a  few  hours  before  Mr.  Adams,  the  sensibility  of 
the  community,  as  of  the  country  at  large,  was  touched  beyond  all  ex 
ample.  The  occurrence  was  justly  deemed  without  a  parallel  in  history. 
The  various  circumstances  of  association  and  coincidence  which  marked 
the  characters  and  careers  of  these  great  men,  and  especially  those  of 
their  simultaneous  decease  on  the  4th  of  July,  were  dwelt  upon  with 
melancholy  but  untiring  interest.  The  circles  of  private  life,  the  press, 
public  bodies,  and  the  pulpit,  were  for  some  time  almost  engrossed 
with  the  topic  ;  and  solemn  rites  of  commemoration  were  performed 
throughout  the  country. 

An  early  day  was  appointed  for  this  purpose  by  the  City  Council  of 
Boston.  The  whole  community  manifested  its  sympathy  in  the  extraor 
dinary  event ;  and  on  the  2d  of  August,  1826,  at  the  request  of  the 
municipal  authorities,  and  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  audience,  the 
following  Discourse  was  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall. 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 


THIS  is  an  unaccustomed  spectacle.  For  the  first  time,  fellow- 
citizens,  badges  of  mourning  shroud  the  columns  and  overhang 
the  arches  of  this  hall.  These  walls,  which  were  consecrated, 
so  long  ago,  to  the  cause  of  American  liberty,  which  witnessed 
her  infant  struggles,  and  rung  with  the  shouts  of  her  earliest 
victories,  proclaim,  now,  that  distinguished  friends  and  cham 
pions  of  that  great  cause  have  fallen.  It  is  right  that  it  should 
be  thus.  The  tears  which  flow,  and  the  honors  that  are  paid, 
when  the  founders  of  the  republic  die,  give  hope  that  the  re 
public  itself  may  be  immortal.  It  is  fit  that,  by  public  assembly 
and  solemn  observance,  by  anthem  and  by  eulogy,  we  commem 
orate  the  services  of  national  benefactors,  extol  their  virtues,  and 
render  thanks  to  God  for  eminent  blessings,  early  given  and 
long  continued,  through  their  agency,  to  our  favored  country. 

ADAMS  and  JEFFERSON  are  no  more ;  and  we  are  assem 
bled,  fellow-citizens,  the  aged,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  young, 
by  the  spontaneous  impulse  of  all,  under  the  authority  of  the 
municipal  government,  with  the  presence  of  the  chief  magistrate 
of  the  Commonwealth,  and  others  its  official  representatives, 
the  University,  and  the  learned  societies,  to  bear  our  part  in 
those  manifestations  of  respect  and  gratitude  which  pervade  the 
whole  land.  ADAMS  and  JEFFERSON  are  no  more.  On  our  fifti 
eth  anniversary,  the  great  day  of  national  jubilee,  in  the  very 
hour  of  public  rejoicing,  in  the  midst  of  echoing  and  reechoing 
voices  of  thanksgiving,  while  their  own  names  were  on  all 
tongues,  they  took  their  flight  together  to  the  world  of  spirits. 

*  A  Discourse  in  Commemoration  of  the  Lives  and  Services  of  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Jefferson,  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  on  the  2d  of  August,  1826 

10* 


114  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

If  it  be  true  that  no  one  can  safely  be  pronounced  happy 
while  he  lives,  if  that  event  which  terminates  life  can  alone 
crown  its  honors  and  its  glory,  what  felicity  is  here !  The  great 
epic  of  their  lives,  how  happily  concluded!  Poetry  itself  has 
hardly  terminated  illustrious  lives,  and  finished  the  career  of 
earthly  renown,  by  such  a  consummation.  If  we  had  the  power, 
we  could  not  wish  to  reverse  this  dispensation  of  the  Divine 
Providence.  The  great  objects  of  life  were  accomplished,  the 
drama  was  ready  to  be  closed.  It  has  closed ;  our  patriots  have 
fallen ;  but  so  fallen,  at  such  age,  with  such  coincidence,  on  such 
a  day,  that  we  cannot  rationally  lament  that  that  end  has  come, 
which  we  knew  could  not  be  long  deferred. 

Neither  of  these  great  men,  fellow-citizens,  could  have  died,  at 
any  time,  without  leaving  an  immense  void  in  our  American 
society.  They  have  been  so  intimately,  and  for  so  long  a  time, 
blended  with  the  history  of  the  country,  and  especially  so 
united,  in  our  thoughts  and  recollections,  with  the  events  of  the 
Revolution,  that  the  death  of  either  would  have  touched  the 
chords  of  public  sympathy.  We  should  have  felt  that  one 
great  link,  connecting  us  with  former  times,  was  broken ;  that 
we  had  lost  something  more,  as  it  were,  of  the  presence  of  the 
Revolution  itself,  and  of  the  act  of  independence,  and  were 
driven  on,  by  another  great  remove  from  the  days  of  our  coun 
try's  early  distinction,  to  meet  posterity,  and  to  mix  with  the 
future.  Like  the  mariner,  whom  the  currents  of  the  ocean  and 
the  winds  carry  along,  till  he  sees  the  stars  which  have  directed 
his  course  and  lighted  his  pathless  way  descend,  one  by  one, 
beneath  the  rising  horizon,  we  should  have  felt  that  the  stream 
of  time  had  borne  us  onward  tiU  another  great  luminary,  whose 
light  had  cheered  us  and  whose  guidance  we  had  followed,  had 
sunk  away  from  our  sight. 

But  the  concurrence  of  their  death  on  the  anniversary  of  In 
dependence  lias  naturally  awakened  stronger  emotions.  Both 
had  been  Presidents,  both  had  lived  to  great  age,  both  were 
early  patriots,  and  both  were  distinguished  and  ever  honored 
by  their  immediate  agency  in  the  act  of  independence.  It  can 
not  but  seem  striking  and  extraordinary,  that  these  two  should 
live  to  see  the  fiftieth  year  from  the  date  of  that  act ;  that  they 
should  complete  that  year ;  and  that  then,  on  the  day  which  had 
fast  linked  for  ever  their  own  fame  with  their  country's  glory,  the 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON. 

heavens  should  open  to  receive  them  both  at  once.  As  their 
lives  themselves  were  the  gifts  of  Providence,  who  is  not  willing 
to  recognize  in  their  happy  termination,  as  well  as  in  then*  long 
continuance,  proofs  that  our  country  and  its  benefactors  are  ob 
jects  of  His  care  ? 

ADAMS  and  JEFFERSON,  I  have  said,  are  no  more.  As  human 
beings,  indeed,  they  are  no  more.  They  are  no  more,  as  in  1776, 
bold  and  fearless  advocates  of  independence;  no  more,  as  at 
subsequent  periods,  the  head  of  the  government ;  no  more,  as  we 
have  recently  seen  them,  aged  and  venerable  objects  of  admira 
tion  and  regard.  They  are  no  more.  They  are  dead.  But  how 
little  is  there  of  the  great  and  good  which  can  die!  To  their 
country  they  yet  live,  and  live  for  ever.  They  live  in  all  that 
perpetuates  the  remembrance  of  men  on  earth ;  in  the  recorded 
proofs  of  their  own  great  actions,  in  the  offspring  of  their  intel 
lect,  in  the  deep-engraved  lines  of  public  gratitude,  and  in  the  re 
spect  and  homage  of  mankind.  They  live  in  their  example ;  and 
they  live,  emphatically,  and  will  live,  in  the  influence  which  their 
lives  and  efforts,  their  principles  and  opinions,  now  exercise,  and 
will  continue  to  exercise,  on  the  affairs  of  men,  not  only  in  then- 
own  country,  but  throughout  the  civilized  world.  A  superior  and 
commanding  human  intellect,  a  truly  great  man,  when  Heaven 
vouchsafes  so  rare  a  gift,  is  not  a  temporary  flame,  binning 
brightly  for  a  while,  and  then  giving  place  to  returning  darkness. 
It  is  rather  a  spark  of  fervent  heat,  as  well  as  radiant  light,  with 
power  to  enkindle  the  common  mass  of  human  mind ;  so  that 
when  it  glimmers  in  its  own  decay,  and  finally  goes  out  in  death, 
no  night  follows,  but  it  leaves  the  world  all  light,  all  on  fire,  from 
the  potent  contact  of  its  own  spirit.  Bacon  died ;  but  the  human 
understanding,  roused  by  the  touch  of  his  miraculous  wand  to 
a  perception  of  the  true  philosophy  and  the  just  mode  of  inquir 
ing  after  truth,  has  kept  on  its  course  successfully  and  gloriously. 
Newton  died ;  yet  the  courses  of  the  spheres  are  still  known,  and 
they  yet  move  on  by  the  laws  which  he  discovered,  and  in  the 
orbits  which  he  saw,  and  described  for  them,  in  the  infinity  oi 
apace. 

No  two  men  now  live,  fellow-citizens,  perhaps  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  two  men  have  ever  lived  in  one  age,  who, 
more  than  those  we  now  commemorate,  have  impressed  on  man 
kind  their  own  sentiments  in  regard  to  politics  and  government,, 


116  ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON. 

infused  their  own  opinions  more  deeply  into  the  opinions  of  oth 
ers,  or  given  a  more  lasting  direction  to  the  current  of  human 
thought.  Their  work  doth  not  perish  with  them.  The  tree 
which  they  assisted  to  plant  will  flourish,  although  they  water  it 
and  protect  it  no  longer ;  for  it  has  struck  its  roots  deep,  it  has 
sent  them  to  the  very  centre ;  no  storm,  not  of  force  to  burst  the 
orb,  can  overturn  it ;  its  branches  spread  wide ;  they  stretch  their 
protecting  arms  broader  and  broader,  and  its  top  is  destined  to 
reach  the  heavens.  We  are  not  deceived.  There  is  no  delusion 
here.  No  age  will  come  in  which  the  American  Revolution 
will  appear  less  than  it  is,  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  human 
history.  No  age  will  come  in  which  it  shall  cease  to  be  seen 
and  felt,  on  either  continent,  that  a  mighty  step,  a  great  ad 
vance,  not  only  in  American  affairs,  but  in  human  affairs,  was 
made  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776.  And  no  age  will  come,  we 
trust,  so  ignorant  or  so  unjust  as  not  to  see  and  acknowledge 
the  efficient  agency  of  those  we  now  honor  in  producing  that 
momentous  event. 

We  are  not  assembled,  therefore,  fellow-citizens,  as  men  over 
whelmed  with  calamity  by  the  sudden  disruption  of  the  ties  of 
friendship  or  affection,  or  as  in  despair  for  the  republic  by  the 
untimely  blighting  of  its  hopes.  Death  has  not  surprised  us  by 
an  unseasonable  blow.  We  have,  indeed,  seen  the  tomb  close, 
but  it  has  closed  only  over  mature  years,  over  long-protracted 
public  service,  over  the  weakness  of  age,  and  over  life  itself  only 
when  the  ends  of  living  had  been  fulfilled.  These  suns,  as  they 
rose  slowly  and  steaolily,  amidst  clouds  and  storms,  in  their 
ascendant,  so  they  have  not  rushed  from  their  meridian  to  sink 
suddenly  in  the  west.  Like  the  mildness,  the  serenity,  the  con 
tinuing  benignity  of  a  summer's  day,  they  have  gone  down  with 
slow-descending,  grateful,  long-lingering  light;  and  now  that 
they  are  beyond  the  visible  margin  of  the  world,  good  omens 
cheer  us  from  "  the  bright  track  of  their  fiery  car  " ! 

There  were  many  points  of  similarity  in  the  lives  and  fortunes 
of  these  great  men.  They  belonged  to  the  same  profession,  and 
had  pursued  its  studies  and  its  practice,  for  unequal  lengths  of 
time  indeed,  but  with  diligence  and  effect.  Both  were  learned 
and  able  lawyers.  They  were  natives  and  inhabitants,  respec 
tively,  of  those  two  of  the  Colonies  which  at  the  Revolution  were 
the  largest  and  most  powerful,  and  which  naturally  had  a  lead 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  117 

in  the  political  affairs  of  the  times.  When  the  Co^oiiies  became 
in  some  degree  united,  by  the  assembling  of  a  general  Congress, 
they  were  brought  to  act  together  in  its  deliberations,  not  indeed 
at  the  same  time,  but  both  at  early  periods.  Each  had  already 
manifested  his  attachment  to  the  cause  of  the  country,  as  well 
as  his  ability  to  maintain  it,  by  printed  addresses,  public  speech 
es,  extensive  correspondence,  and  whatever  other  mode  could  be 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  exposing  the  encroachments  of  the 
British  Parliament,  and  animating  the  people  to  a  manly  resist 
ance.  Both  were  not  only  decided,  but  early,  friends  of  Inde 
pendence.  While  others  yet  doubted,  they  were  resolved ;  where 
others  hesitated,  they  pressed  forward.  They  were  both  mem 
bers  of  the  committee  for  preparing  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  and  they  constituted  the  sub-committee  appointed  by  the 
other  members  to  make  the  draft.  They  left  their  seats  in  Con 
gress,  being  called  to  other  public  employments,  at  periods  not 
remote  from  each  other,  although  one  of  them  returned  to  it 
afterwards  for  a  short  time.  Neither  of  them  was  of  the  assem 
bly  of  great  men  which  formed  the  present  Constitution,  and 
neither  was  at  any  time  a  member  of  Congress  under  its  provis 
ions.  Both  have  been  public  ministers  abroad,  both  Vice-Presi 
dents  and  both  Presidents  of  the  United  States.  These  coin 
cidences  are  now  singularly  crowned  and  completed.  They 
have  died  together ;  and  they  died  on  the  anniversary  of  liberty. 
When  many  of  us  were  last  in  this  place,  fellow-citizens,  it 
was  on  the  day  of  that  anniversary.  We  were  met  to  enjoy 
the  festivities  belonging  to  the  occasion,  and  to  manifest  our 
grateful  homage  to  our  political  fathers.  We  did  not,  we 
could  not  here,  forget  our  venerable  neighbor  of  Quincy.  We 
knew  that  we  were  standing,  at  a  time  of  high  and  palmy 
prosperity,  where  he  had  stood  in  the  hour  of  utmost  peril  ^ 
that  we  saw  nothing  but  liberty  and  security,  where  he  had 
met  the  frown  of  power;  that  we  were  enjoying  every  thing, 
where  he  had  hazarded  every  thing ;  and  just  and  sincere  plau 
dits  rose  to  his  name,  from  the  crowds  which  filled  this  area, 
and  hung  over  these  galleries.  He  whose  grateful  duty  it  was 
to  speak  to  us,*  on  that  day,  of  the  virtues  of  our  fathers,  had, 
indeed,  admonished  us  that  time  and  years  were  about  to  level 

*  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy. 


118  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

his  venerable  frame  with  the  dust.  But  he  bade  us  hope  thai 
"the  sound  of  a  nation's  joy,  rushing  from  our  cities,  ringing 
from  our  valleys,  echoing  from  our  hills,  might  yet  break  the 
silence  of  his  aged  ear ;  that  the  rising  blessings  of  grateful  mil 
lions  might  yet  visit  with  glad  light  his  decaying  vision." 
Alas !  that  vision  was  then  closing  for  ever.  Alas !  the  silence 
which  was  then  settling  on  that  aged  ear  was  an  everlasting 
silence !  For,  lo !  in  the  very  moment  of  our  festivities,  his  freed 
spirit  ascended  to  God  who  gave  it !  Human  aid  and  human 
solace  terminate  at  the  grave ;  or  we  would  gladly  have  borne 
him  upward,  on  a  nation's  outspread  hands ;  we  would  have 
accompanied  him,  and  with  the  blessings  of  millions  and  the 
prayers  of  millions,  commended  him  to  the  Divine  favor. 

While  still  indulging  our  thoughts,  on  the  coincidence  of  the 
death  of  this  venerable  man  with  the  anniversary  of  Independ 
ence,  we  learn  that  Jefferson,  too,  has  fallen ;  and  that  these  aged 
patriots,  these  illustrious  fellow-laborers,  have  left  our  world  to 
gether.  May  not  such  events  raise  the  suggestion  that  they  are 
not  undesigned,  and  that  Heaven  does  so  order  things,  as  some 
times  to  attract  strongly  the  attention  and  excite  the  thoughts 
of  men  ?  The  occurrence  has  added  new  interest  to  our  anni 
versary,  and  will  be  remembered  in  all  time  to  come. 

The  occasion,  fellow-citizens,  requires  some  account  of  the 
lives  and  services  of  JOHN  ADAMS  and  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 
This  duty  must  necessarily  be  performed  with  great  brevity,  and 
in  the  discharge  of  it  I  shall  be  obliged  to  confine  myself,  prin 
cipally,  to  those  parts  of  their  history  and  character  which 
belonged  to  them  as  public  men. 

JOHN  ADAMS  was  born  at  Quincy,  then  part  of  the  ancient 
town  of  Braintree,  on  the  19th  day  of  October  (old  style),  1735. 
He  was  a  descendant  of  the  Puritans,  his  ancestors  having  early 
emigrated  from  England,  and  settled  in  Massachusetts.  Dis 
covering  in  childhood  a  strong  love  of  reading  &nd  of  knowl 
edge,  together  with  marks  of  great  strength  and  activity  of  mind, 
proper  care  was  taken  by  his  worthy  father  to  provide  for  his 
education.  He  pursued  his  youthful  studies  in  Braintree,  under 
Mr.  Marsh,  a  teacher  whose  fortune  it  was  that  Josiah  Quincy, 
Jr.,  as  well  as  the  subject  of  these  remarks,  should  receive  from 
him  his  instruction  in  the  rudiments  of  classical  literature. 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFEFSON.  119 

Having  been  admitted,  in  1751,  a  member  of  Harvard  College, 
Mr.  Adams  was  graduated,  in  course,  in  1755 ;  and  on  the  cata 
logue  of  that  institution,  his  name,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was 
second  among  the  living  Alumni,  being  preceded  only  by  that  of 
the  venerable  Holyoke.  With  what  degree  of  reputation  he 
left  the  University  is  not  now  precisely  known.  We  know  only 
that,  he  was  distinguished  in  a  class  which  numbered  Locke 
and  Hernmenway  among  its  members.  Choosing  the  law  for 
his  profession,  he  commence4  and  prosecuted  its  studies  at  Wor 
cester,  under  the  direction  of  Samuel  Putnam,  a  gentleman 
whom  he  has  himself  described  as  an  acute  man,  an  able  and 
learned  lawyer,  and  as  being  in  large  professional  practice  at 
that  time.  In  1758  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  entered 
upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Braintree.  He  is  understood  to 
have  made  his  first  considerable  effort,  or  to  have  attained  his 
first  signal  success,  at  Plymouth,  on  one  of  those  occasions 
which  furnish  the  earliest  opportunity  for  distinction  to  many 
young  men  of  the  profession,  a  jury  trial,  and  a  criminal  cause. 
His  business  naturally  grew  with  his  reputation,  and  his  resi 
dence  in  the  vicinity  afforded  the  opportunity,  as  his  growing 
eminence  gave  the  power,  of  entering  on  a  larger  field  of  prac 
tice  in  the  capital.  In  1766  he  removed  his  residence  to  Boston, 
still  continuing  his  attendance  on  the  neighboring  circuits,  and 
not  unfrequently  called  to  remote  parts  of  the  Province.  In 
1770  his  professional  firmness  was  brought  to  a  test  of  some 
severity,  on  the  application  of  the  British  officers  and  soldiers  to 
undertake  their  defence,  on  the  trial  of  the  indictments  found 
against  them  on  account  of  the  transactions  of  the  memorable 
5th  of  March.  He  seems  to  have  thought,  on  this  occasion,  that 
a  man  can  no  more  abandon  the  proper  duties  of  his  profession, 
than  he  can  abandon  other  duties.  The  event  proved,  that  ae 
he  judged  well  for  his  own  reputation,  so,  too,  he  judged  well 
for  the  interest  and  permanent  fame  of  his  country.  The  result 
of  that  trial  proved,  that,  notwithstanding  the  high  degree  of  ex 
citement  then  existing  in  consequence  of  the  measures  of  the 
Britisli  government,  a  jury  of  Massachusetts  would  not  deprive 
the  most  reckless  enemies,  even  the  officers  of  that  standing 
army  quartered  among  them,  which  they  so  perfectly  abhorred,  of 
any  part  of  that  protection  which  the  law,  in  its  mildest  and  most 
indulgent  interpretation,  affords  to  persons  accused  of  crimes. 


120  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

Without  following  Mr.  Adams's  professional  course  further 
suffice  it  to  say,  that  on  the  first  establishment  of  the  judicial 
tribunals  under  the  authority  of  the  State,  in  1776,  he  received 
an  offer  of  the  high  and  responsible  station  of  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts.  But  he  was  destined  for 
another  and  a  different  career.  From  early  life  the  bent  of  his 
mind  was  toward  politics ;  a  propensity  which  the  state  of  the 
times,  if  it  did  not  create,  doubtless  very  much  strengthened. 
Public  subjects  must  have  occupied  the  thoughts  and  filled  up 
the  conversation  in  the  circles  in  which  he  then  moved ;  and 
the  interesting  questions  at  that  time  just  arising  could  not  but 
seize  on  a  mind  like  his,  ardent,  sanguine,  and  patriotic.  A  let 
ter,  fortunately  preserved,  written  by  him  at  Worcester,  so  early 
as  the  12th  of  October,  1755,  is  a  proof  of  very  comprehensive 
views,  and  uncommon  depth  of  reflection,  in  a  young  man  not 
yet  quite  twenty.  In  this  letter  he  predicted  the  transfer  of  pow 
er,  and  the  establishment  of  a  new  seat  of  empire  in  America ; 
he  predicted,  also,  the  increase  of  population  in  the  Colonies ; 
and  anticipated  their  naval  distinction,  and  foretold  that  all  Eu 
rope  combined  could  not  subdue  them.  All  this  is  said,  not  on 
a  public  occasion  or  for  effect,  but  in  the  style  of  sober  and 
friendly  correspondence,  as  the  result  of  his  own  thoughts.  "  I 
sometimes  retire,"  said  he,  at  the  close  of  the  letter,  "  and,  laying 
things  together,  form  some  reflections  pleasing  to  myself.  The 
produce  of  one  of  these  reveries  you  have  read  above."  *  This 
prognostication  so  early  in  his  own  life,  so  early  in  the  history 
of  the  country,  of  independence,  of  vast  increase  of  numbers,  of 

*  Extract  of  a  letter  written  by  John  Adams  to  Nathan  Webb,  dated  at  Wor 
cester,  Massachusetts,  October  12,  1755. 

"  Soon  after  the  Reformation,  a  few  people  came  over  into  this  New  World,  for 
conscience'  sake.  Perhaps  this  apparently  trivial  incident  may  transfer  the  great 
seat  of  empire  into  America.  It  looks  likely  to  me  ;  for,  if  we  can  remove  the 
turbulent  Gallics,  our  people,  according  to  the  exactest  computations,  will,  in  an 
other  century,  become  more  numerous  than  England  itself.  Should  this  be  the 
case,  since  we  have,  I  may  say,  all  the  naval  stores  of  the  nation  in  our  hands,  it 
will  be  easy  to  obtain  a  mastery  of  the  seas  ;  and  then  the  united  force  of  all 
Europe  will  not  be  able  to  subdue  us.  The  only  way  to  keep  us  from  setting  up 
for  ourselves  is  to  disunite  us. 

"  Be  not  surprised  that  I  am  turned  politician.  This  whole  town  is  immersed 
in  politics.  The  interests  of  nations,  and  all  the  dira  of  war,  make  the  subject  of 
every  conversation.  I  sit  and  hear,  and  after  having  been  led  through  a  maze  of 
sage  observations,  I  sometimes  retire,  and,  laying  things  together,  form  some  re 
flections  pleasing  to  myself  The  produce  of  one  of  these  reveries  you  have  read 
above." 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  121 

naval  force,  of  such  augmented  power  as  might  defy  all  Europe, 
is  remarkable.  It  is  more  remarkable  that  its  author  should  live 
to  see  fulfilled  to  the  letter  what  could  have  seemed  to  others, 
at  the  time,  but  the  extravagance  of  youthful  fancy.  His  ear 
liest  political  feelings  were  thus  strongly  American,  and  from 
this  ardent  attachment  to  his  native  soil  he  never  departed. 

While  still  living  at  Quincy,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-four, 
Mr.  Adams  was  present,  in  this  town,  at  the  argument  before 
the  Supreme  Court  respecting  Writs  of  Assistance,  and  heard 
the  celebrated  and  patriotic  speech  of  JAMES  OTIS.  Unquestion 
ably,  that  was  a  masterly  performance.  No  flighty  declamation 
about  liberty,  no  superficial  discussion  of  popular  topics,  it  was 
a  learned,  penetrating,  convincing,  constitutional  argument,  ex 
pressed  in  a  strain  of  high  and  resolute  patriotism.  He  grasped 
the  question  then  pending  between  England  and  her  Colonies 
with  the  strength  of  a  lion ;  and  if  he  sometimes  sported,  it  was 
only  because  the  lion  himself  is  sometimes  playful.  Its  success 
appears  to  have  been  as  great  as  its  merits,  and  its  impression 
was  widely  felt.  Mr.  Adams  himself  seems  never  to  have  lost 
the  feeling  it  produced,  and  to  have  entertained  constantly  the 
fullest  conviction  of  its  important  effects.  "  I  do  say,"  he  ob 
serves,  "in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  Mr.  Otis's  Oration 
against  Writs  of  Assistance  breathed  into  this  nation  the  breath 
of  life."  * 

In  1765  Mr.  Adams  laid  before  the  public,  anonymously,  a 
series  of  essays,  afterwards  collected  in  a  volume  in  London,  un 
der  the  title  of  A  Dissertation  on  the  Canon  and  Feudal  Law.f 
The  object  of  this  work  was  to  show  that  our  New  England 
ancestors,  in  consenting  to  exile  themselves  from  their  native 
land,  were  actuated  mainly  by  the  desire  of  delivering  them 
selves  from  the  power  of  the  hierarchy,  and  from  the  monarchi 
cal  and  aristocratical  systems  of  the  other  continent;  and  to 
make  this  truth  bear  with  effect  on  the  politics  of  the  times.  Its 

*  Nearly  all  that  was  known  of  this  celebrated  argument,  at  the  time  the  pres 
ent  Discourse  was  delivered,  was  derived  from  the  recollections  of  John  Adams, 
as  preserved  in  Minot's  History  of  Massachusetts,  Vol.  II.  p.  91.  See  Life  and 
Works  of  John  Adams,  Vol.  II.  p.  124,  published  in  the  course  of  the  past  year 
(1850),  in  the  Appendix  to  which,  p.  521,  will  be  found  a  paper  hitherto  unpub 
lished,  containing  notes  of  the  argument  of  Otis,  "  which  seem  to  be  the  founda 
tion  of  the  sketch  published  by  Minot."  Tudor 's  Life  of  James  Otis,  p.  61. 

f  See  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,  Vol.  II.  p.  150,  Vol.  III.  p.  447,  and 
North  American  Review,  Vol.  LXXI.  p.  430. 

VOL.    I.  11 


122  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

tone  is  uncommonly  bold  and  animated  for  that  period.  He 
calls  on  the  people,  not  only  to  defend,  but  to  study  and  under 
stand,  their  rights  and  privileges ;  urges  earnestly  the  necessity 
of  diffusing  general  knowledge ;  invokes  the  clergy  and  the  bar, 
the  colleges  and  academies,  and  all  others  who  have  the  ability 
and  the  means  to  expose  the  insidious  designs  of  arbitrary  pow 
er,  to  resist  its  approaches,  and  to  be  persuaded  that  there  is  a 
settled  design  on  foot  to  enslave  all  America.  "  Be  it  remem 
bered,"  says  the  author,  "  that  liberty  must,  at  all  hazards,  be 
supported.  We  have  a  right  to  it,  derived  from  our  Maker. 
But  if  we  had  not,  our  father^  have  earned  and  bought  it  for 
us,  at  the  expense  of  their  ease,  their  estates,  their  pleasure,  and 
their  blood.  And  liberty  cannot  be  preserved  without  a  general 
knowledge  among  the  people,  who  have  a  right,  from  the  frame 
of  their  nature,  to  knowledge,  as  their  great  Creator,  who  does 
nothing  in  vain,  has  given  them  understandings  and  a  desire  to 
know.  But,  besides  this,  they  have  a  right,  an  indisputable, 
unalienable,  indefeasible,  divine  right,  to  that  most  dreaded  and 
envied  kind  of  knowledge,  I  mean  of  the  characters  and  conduct 
of  their  rulers.  Rulers  are  no'  more  than  attorneys,  agents,  and 
trustees  for  the  people ;  and  if  the  cause,  the  interest  and  trust,  is 
insidiously  betrayed,  or  wantonly  trifled  away,  the  people  have  a 
right  to  revoke  the  authority  that  they  themselves  have  deputed, 
and  to  constitute  abler  and  better  agents,  attorneys,  and  trustees." 

The  citizens  of  this  town  conferred  on  Mr.  Adams  his  first 
political  distinction,  and  clothed  him  with  his  first  political  trust, 
by  electing  him  one  of  their  representatives,  in  1770.  Before 
this  time  he  had  become  extensively  known  throughout  the 
Province,  as  well  by  the  part  he  had  acted  in  relation  to  public 
affairs,  as  by  the  exercise  of  his  professional  ability.  He  was 
among  those  who  took  the  deepest  interest  in  the  controversy 
with  England,  and  whether  in  or  out  of  the  legislature,  his  time 
and  talents  were  alike  devoted  to  the  cause.  In  the  years  1773 
and  1774  he  was  chosen  a  Councillor  by  the  members  of  the 
General  Court,  but  rejected  by  Governor  Hutchinson  in  the  for- 
mer  of  those  years,  and  by  Governor  Gage  in  the  latter. 

The  time  was  now  at  hand,  however,  when  the  affairs  of  the 
Colonies  urgently  demanded  united  counsels  throughout  the 
country.  An  open  rupture  with  the  parent  state  appeared  inev 
itable,  and  it  was  but  the  dictate  of  prudence  that  those  who 


ADAMS  AJND  JEFFERSON.  1-23 

were  united  by  a  common  interest  and  a  common  danger  should 
protect  that  interest  and  guard  against  that  danger  by  united 
efforts.     A  general  Congress  of  Delegates  from  all  the  Colonies 
having  been  proposed  and  agreed  to,  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  on  the  17th  of  June,  1774,  elected  James  Bowdoin,  Thom 
as  Gushing,  Samuel  Adams,  John   Adams,  and  Robert  Treat 
Paine,  delegates  from  Massachusetts.     This  appointment  was 
made  at  Salem,  where  the  General  Court  had  been  convened  by 
Governor  Gage,  in  the  last  hour  of  the  existence  of  a  House  of 
Representatives  under  the  Provincial  Charter.     While  engaged 
in  this  important  business,  the  Governor,  having  been  informed 
of  what  was  passing,  sent  his  secretary  with  a  message  dissolv 
ing  the  General  Court.     The  secretary,  finding  the  door  locked, 
directed  the  messenger  to  go  in  and  inform  the  Speaker  that  the 
secretary  was  at  the  door  with  a  message  from  the  Governor. 
The  messenger  returned,  and  informed  the  secretary  that  the 
orders  of  the  House  were  that  the  doors  should  be  kept  fast ; 
whereupon  the  secretary  soon  after  read  upon  the  stairs  a  proc 
lamation  dissolving  the  General  Court.     Thus  terminated,  for 
ever,  the  actual  exercise  of  the  political  power  of  England  in  or 
over  Massachusetts.     The  four  last-named  delegates  accepted 
their  appointments,  and  took  their  seats  in  Congress  the  first 
day  of  its  meeting,  the  5th  of  September,  1774,  in  Philadelphia. 
The  proceedings  of  the  first   Congress  are  well  known,  and 
have  been  universally  admired.     It  is  in  vain  that  we  would 
look  for  superior  proofs  of  wisdom,  talent,  and  patriotism.    Lord 
Chatham  said,  that,  for  himself,  he  must  declare  that  he   had 
studied  and  admired  the  free   states   of  antiquity,  the  master 
states  of  the  world,  but  that  for  solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of 
sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion,  no  body  of  men  could  stand 
in  preference  to  this   Congress.     It  is  hardly  inferior  praise  to 
say,  that  no  production  of  that  great  man  himself  can  be  pro 
nounced  superior  to  several  of  the  papers  published  as  the  pro 
ceedings  of  this  most  able,  most  firm,  most  patriotic  assembly. 
There  is,  indeed,  nothing  superior  to  them  in  the  range  of  politi 
cal  disquisition.     They  not  only  embrace,  illustrate,  and  enforce 
every  thing  which  political   philosophy,  the  love  of  liberty,  and 
the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  had  antecedently  produced,  but  they 
add  new  and  striking  views  of  their  own,  and  apply  the  whole, 
with  irresistible  force,  in  support  of  the  cause  which  had  drawn 
them  together. 


124  ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON. 

Mr.  Adams  was  a  constant  attendant  on  the  deliberations  of 
this  body,  and  bore  an  active  part  in  its  important  measures, 
He  was  of  the  committee  to  state  the  rights  of  the  Colonies,  and 
of  that  also  which  reported  the  Address  to  the  King. 

As  it  was  in  the  Continental  Congress,  fellow-citizens,  that 
those  whose  deaths  have  given  rise  to  this  occasion  were  first 
brought  together,  and  called  upon  to  unite  their  industry  and 
their  ability  in  the  service  of  the  country,  let  us  now  turn  to  the 
other  of  these  distinguished  men,  and  take  a  brief  notice  of  his 
life  up  to  the  period  when  he  appeared  within  the  walls  of  Con 
gress. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  descended  from  ancestors  who  had  been 
settled  in  Virginia  for  some  generations,  was  born  near  the  spot 
on  which  he  died,  in  the  county  of  Albemarle,  on  the  2d  of 
April  (old  style),  1743.  His  youthful  studies  were  pursued  in 
the  neighborhood  of  his  father's  residence  until  he  was  removed 
to  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  the  highest  honors  of 
which  he  in  due  time  received.  Having  left  the  College  with 
reputation,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  the  law  under  the 
tuition  of  George  Wythe,  one  of  the  highest  judicial  names  of 
which  that  State  can  boast.  At  an  early  age  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  legislature,  in  which  he  had  no  sooner  ap 
peared  than  he  distinguished  himself  by  knowledge,  capacity, 
and  promptitude. 

Mr.  Jefferson  appears  to  have  been  imbued  with  an  early  love 
of  letters  and  science,  and  to  have  cherished  a  strong  disposition 
to  pursue  these  objects.  To  the  physical  sciences,  especially, 
and  to  ancient  classic  literature,  he  is  understood  to  have  had  a 
warm  attachment,  and  never  entirely  to  have  lost  sight  of  them 
in  the  midst  of  the  busiest  occupations.  But  the  times  were 
times  for  action,  rather  than  for  contemplation.  The  country 
was  to  be  defended,  and  to  be  saved,  before  it  could  be  enjoyed. 
Philosophic  leisure  and  literary  pursuits,  and  even  the  objects  of 
professional  attention,  were  all  necessarily  postponed  to  the  ur 
gent  calls  of  the  public  service.  The  exigency  of  the  country 
made  the  same  demand  on  Mr.  Jefferson  that  it  made  on  others 
who  had  the  ability  and  the  disposition  to  serve  it;  and  he 
obeyed  the  call ;  thinldng  and  feeling  in  this  respect  with  the 
great  Roman  orator :  "  Quis  enim  est  tarn  cupidus  in  perspicien- 
da  cognoscendaque  rerum  natura,  ut,  si  ei  tractanti  contemplan- 


ADAMS   AJXD  JEFFERSON. 

fcique  res  cognitione  dignissimas  subito  sit  allatum  periculum 
discrimenque  patriae,  cui  subvenire  opitularique  possit,  non  ilia 
omnia  relinquat  atque  abjiciat,  etiam  si  dinumerare  se  stellas, 
aut  metiri  mundi  magnitudinem  posse  arbitretur  ?  "  * 

Entering  with  all  his  heart  into  the  cause  of  liberty,  his  abili 
ty,  patriotism,  and  power  with  the  pen  naturally  drew  upon 
him  a  large  participation  in  the  most  important  concerns. 
Wherever  he  was,  there  was  found  a  soul  devoted  to  the  cause, 
power  to  defend  and  maintain  it,  and  willingness  to  incur  all  its 
hazards.  In  1774  he  published  a  Summary  View  of  the  Rights 
of  British  America,  a  valuable  production  among  those  intended 
to  show  the  dangers  which  threatened  the  liberties  of  the  coun 
try,  and  to  encourage  the  people  in  their  defence.  In  June, 
1775,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  as 
successor  to  Peyton  Randolph,  who  had  resigned  Jiis  place  on 
account  of  ill  health,  and  took  his  seat  in  that  body  on  the  21st 
of  the  sam'e  month. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  without  pursuing  the  biography  of 
these  illustrious  men  further,  for  the  present,  let  us  turn  our  at 
tention  to  the  most  prominent  act  of  their  lives,  their  participa 
tion  in  the  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

Preparatory  to  the  introduction  of  that  important  measure,  a 
committee,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Mr.  Adams,  had  reported 
a  resolution,  which  Congress  adopted  on  the  10th  of  May,  rec 
ommending,  in  substance,  to  all  the  Colonies  which  had  not 
already  established  governments  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  their 
affairs,  to  adopt  such  government  as  would,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  best  conduce  to  the  happiness  and 
safety  of  their  constituents  in  particular,  and  America  in  general. 

This  significant  vote  was  soon  followed  by  the  direct  propo 
sition  which  Richard  Henry  Lee  had  the  honor  to  submit  to 
Congress,  by  resolution,  on  the  7th  day  of  June.  The  published 
iournal  does  not  expressly  state  it,  but  there  is  no  doubt,  I  sup 
pose,  that  this  resolution  was  in  the  same  words,  when  originally 
submitted  by  Mr.  Lee,  as  when  finally  passed.  Having  been 
discussed  on  Saturday,  the  8th,  and  Monday,  the  10th  of  June, 
this  resolution  was  on  the  last  mentioned  day  postponed  for 
further  consideration  to  the  first  day  of  July ;  and  at  the 

*  Cicero  de  Officiis,  Lib.  1.  $  43. 
11* 


126  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

same  time  it  was  voted,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  pre 
pare  a  Declaration  to  the  effect  of  the  resolution.  This  com 
mittee  was  elected  by  ballot,  on  the  following  day,  and  consisted 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger 
Sherman,  and  Robert  R.  Livingston. 

It  is  usual,  when  committees  are  elected  by  ballot,  that  their 
members  should  be  arranged  in  order,  according  to  the  number 
of  votes  which  each  has  received.  Mr.  Jefferson,  therefore,  had 
received  the  highest,  and  Mr.  Adams  the  next  highest  number 
of  votes.  The  difference  is  said  to  have  been  but  of  a  single 
vote.  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Adams,  standing  thus  at  the  head 
of  the  committee,  were  requested  by  the  other  members  to  act 
as  a  sub-committee  to  prepare  the  draft ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson  drew 
up  the  paper.  The  original  draft,  as  brought  by  him  from  his 
study,  and  submitted  to  the  other  members  of  the  committee, 
with  interlineations  in  the  handwriting  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  oth 
ers  in  that  of  Mr.  Adams,  was  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  possession  at 
the  time  of  his  death.*  The  merit  of  this  paper  is  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's.  Some  changes  were  made  in  it  at  the  suggestion  of 
other  members  of  the  committee,  and  others  by  Congress  while 
it  was  under  discussion.  But  none  of  them  altered  the  tone, 
the  frame,  the  arrangement,  or  the  general  character  of  the  in 
strument.  As  a  composition,  the  Declaration  is  Mr.  Jefferson's. 
It  is  the  production  of  his  mind,  and  the  high  honor  of  it  belongs 
to  him,  clearly  and  absolutely. 

It  has  sometimes  been  said,  as  if  it  were  a  derogation  from 
the  merits  of  this  paper,  that  it  contains  nothing  new ;  that  it 
only  states  grounds  of  proceeding,  and  presses  topics  of  argu 
ment,  which  had  often  been  stated  and  pressed  before.  But  it 
was  not  the  object  of  the  Declaration  to  produce  any  thing  new. 
It  was  not  to  invent  reasons  for  independence,  but  to  state 
those  which  governed  the  Congress.  For  great  and  sufficient 
causes,  it  was  proposed  to  declare  independence ;  and  the  prop 
er  business  of  the  paper  to  be  drawn  was  to  set  forth  those 
causes,  and  justify  the  authors  of  the  measure,  in  any  event  of 
fortune,  to  the  country  and  to  posterity.  The  cause  of  Ameri- 

*  A  fac-simile  of  this  ever-memorable  state  paper,  as  drafted  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
with  the  interlineations  alluded  to  in  the  text,  is  contained  in  Mr.  Jefferson's 
Writings,  Vol.  I.  p.  146.  See,  also,  in  reference  to  the  history  of  the  Declara 
tion,  the  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams  Vol.  II.  p.  512  et  seg. 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  127 

can  independence,  moreover,  was  now  to  be  presented  to  the 
world  in  such  manner,  if  it  might  so  be,  as  to  engage  its  sym 
pathy,  to  command  its  respect,  to  attract  its  admiration ;  and  in 
an  assembly  of  most  able  and  distinguished  men,  THOMAS  JEF 
FERSON  had  the  high  honor  of  being  the  selected  advocate  of 
this  cause.  To  say  that  he  performed  his  great  work  well, 
would  be  doing  him  injustice.  To  say  that  he  did  excellently 
well,  admirably  well,  would  be  inadequate  and  halting  praise. 
Let  us  rather  say,  that  he  so  discharged  the  duty  assigned  him, 
that  all  Americans  may  well  rejoice  that  the  work  of  drawing 
the  title-deed  of  their  liberties  devolved  upon  him. 

With  all  its  merits,  there  are  those  who  have  thought  that 
there  was  one  thing  in  the  Declaration  to  be  regretted ;  and  that 
is,  the  asperity  and  apparent  anger  with  which  it  speaks  of  the 
person  of  the  king ;  the  industrious  ability  with  which  it  accu 
mulates  and  charges  upon  him  all  the  injuries  which  the  Colo 
nies  had  suffered  from  the  mother  country.  Possibly  some  de 
gree  of  injustice,  now  or  hereafter,  at  home  or  abroad,  may  be 
done  to  the  character  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  if  this  part  of  the  Decla 
ration  be  not  placed  in  its  proper  light.  Anger  or  resentment, 
Certainly  much  less  personal  reproach  and  invective,  could  not 
properly  find  place  in  a  composition  of  such  high  dignity,  and 
of  such  lofty  and  permanent  character. 

A  single  reflection  on  the  original  ground  of  dispute  between 
England  and  the  Colonies  is  sufficient  to  remove  any  unfavor 
able  impression  in  this  respect. 

The  inhabitants  of  all  the  Colonies,  while  Colonies,  admitted 
themselves  bound  by  then*  allegiance  to  the  king ;  but  they  dis 
claimed  altogether  the  authority  of  Parliament ;  holding  them 
selves,  in  this  respect,  to  resemble  the  condition  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland  before  the  respective  unions  of  those  kingdoms  with 
England,  when  they  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the  same  king, 
but  had  each  its  separate  legislature.  The  tie,  therefore,  which 
our  Revolution  was  to  break  did  not  subsist  between  us  and  the 
British  Parliament,  or  between  us  and  the  British  government 
in  the  aggregate,  but  directly  between  us  and  the  king  himself. 
The  Colonies  had  never  admitted  themselves  subject  to  Parlia 
ment.  That  was  precisely  the  point  of  the  original  controversy. 
They  had  uniformly  denied  that  Parliament  had  authority  to 
make  laws  for  them.  There  was,  therefore,  no  subjection  to 


128  ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON. 

Parliament  to  be  thrown  off.*  But  allegiance  to  the  king  did 
exist,  and  had  been  uniformly  acknowledged;  and  down  to 
1775  the  most  solemn  assurances  had  been  given  that  it  was  not 
intended  to  break  that  allegiance,  or  to  throw  it  off.  There 
fore,  as  the  direct  object  and  only  effect  of  the  Declaration,  ac 
cording  to  the  principles  on  which  the  controversy  had  been 
maintained  on  our  part,  were  to  sever  the  tie  of  allegiance  which 
bound  us  to  the  king,  it  was  properly  and  necessarily  founded 
on  acts  of  the  crown  itself,  as  its  justifying  causes.  Parliament 
is  not  so  much  as  mentioned  in  the  whole  instrument.  When 
odious  and  oppressive  acts  are  referred  to,  it  is  done  by  charging 
the  king  with  confederating  with  others  "  in  pretended  acts  of 
legislation  " ;  the  object  being  constantly  to  hold  the  king  him 
self  directly  responsible  for  those  measures  which  were  the 
grounds  of  separation.  Even  the  precedent  of  the  English  Revo 
lution  was  not  overlooked,  and  in  this  case,  as  well  as  in  that, 
occasion  was  found  to  say  that  the  king  had  abdicated  the  gov 
ernment.  Consistency  with  the  principles  upon  which  resistance 
began,  and  with  all  the  previous  state  papers  issued  by  Con 
gress,  required  that  the  Declaration  should  be  bottomed  on  the 
misgovernment  of  the  king;  and  therefore  it  was  properly 
framed  with  that  aim  and  to  that  end.  The  king  was  known, 
indeed,  to  have  acted,  as  in  other  cases,  by  his  ministers,  and 
with  his  Parliament ;  but  as  our  ancestors  had  never  admitted 
themselves  subject  either  to  ministers  or  to  Parliament,  there 
were  no  reasons  to  be  given  for  now  refusing  obedience  to  their 
authority.  This  clear  and  obvious  necessity  of  founding  the 
Declaration  on  the  misconduct  of  the  king  himself,  gives  to  that 
instrument  its  personal  application,  and  its  character  of  direct 
and  pointed  accusation. 

*  This  question,  of  the  power  of  Parliament  over  the  Colonies,  was  dis 
cussed  with  singular  ability,  by  Governor  Hutchinson  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts  on  the  other,  in  1773.  The  argu 
ment  of  the  House  is  in  the  form  of  an  answer  to  the  Governor's  Message,  and 
was  reported  by  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  Mr.  Hancock,  Mr.  Hawley,  Mr.  Bowers, 
Mr.  Hobson,  Mr.  Foster,  Mr.  Phillips,  and  Mr.  Thayer.  As  the  power  of  the 
Parliament  had  been  acknowledged,  so  far  at  least  as  to  affect  us  by  laws  of 
trade,  it  was  not  easy  to  settle  the  line  of  distinction.  It  was  thought,  however, 
to  be  very  clear,  that  the  charters  of  the  Colonies  had  exempted  them  from  the 
general  legislation  of  the  British  Parliament.  See  Massachusetts  State  Papers, 
p.  351.  The  important  assistance  rendered  by  John  Adams  in  the  preparation 
of  the  answer  of  the  House  to  the  Message  of  the  Governor  may  be  learned 
from  the  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,  Vol.  II.  p.  311  et  seq. 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  129 

The  Declaration  having  been  reported  to  Congress  by  the 
committee,  the  resolution  itself  was  taken  up  and  debated  on 
the  first  day  of  July,  and  again  on  the  second,  on  which  last  day 
it  was  agreed  to  and  adopted,  in  these  words :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  these  united  Colonies  are,  and  of  right 
ought  to  be,  free  and  independent  States ;  that  they  are  ab 
solved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  and  that  all 
political  connection  between  them  and  the  state  of  Great 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved."  . 

Having  thus  passed  the  main  resolution,  Congress  proceeded 
to  consider  the  reported  draught  of  the  Declaration.  It  was  dis 
cussed  on  the  second,  and  third,  and  FOURTH  days  of  the  month, 
in  committee  of  the  whole ;  and  on  the  last  of  those  days,  being 
reported  from  that  committee,  it  received  the  final  approbation 
and  sanction  of  Congress.  It  was  ordered,  at  the  same  time, 
that  copies  be  sent  to  the  several  States,  and  that  it  be  pro 
claimed  at  the  head  of  the  army.  The  Declaration  thus  pub 
lished  did  not  bear  the  names  of  the  members,  for  as  yet  it  had 
not  been  signed  by  them.  It  was  authenticated,  like  other  pa 
pers  of  the  Congress,  by  the  signatures  of  the  President  and 
Secretary.  On  the  19th  of  July,  as  appears  by  the  secret  jour 
nal,  Congress  "  Resolved,  That  the  Declaration,  passed  on  the 
fourth,  be  fairly  engrossed  on  parchment,  with  the  title  and  style 
of  <  THE  UNANIMOUS  DECLARATION  OF  THE  THIRTEEN  UNITED 
STATES  OF  AMERICA  ' ;  and  that  the  same,  when  engrossed  be 
signed  by  every  member  of  Congress."  And  on  the  SECOND  DAY 
OF  AUGUST  following,  "the  Declaration,  being  engrossed  and 
compared  at  the  table,  was  signed  by  the  members."  So  that  it 
happens,  fellow-citizens,  that  we  pay  these  honors  to  their  mem 
ory  on  the  anniversary  of  that  day  (2d  of  August)  on  which  these 
great  men  actually  signed  then*  names  to  the  Declaration.  The 
Declaration  was  thus  made,  that  is,  it  passed  and  was  adopted 
as  an  act  of  Congress,  on  the  fourth  of  July ;  it  was  then  signed, 
and  certified  by  the  President  and  Secretary,  like  other  acts.  The 
FOURTH  OF  JULY,  therefore,  is  the  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  DECLA 
RATION.  But  the  signatures  of  the  members  present  were  made 
to  it,  being  then  engrossed  on  parchment,  on  the  second  day  of 
August.  Absent  members  afterwards  signed,  as  they  came  in ; 
and  indeed  it  bears  the  names  of  some  who  were  not  chosen 
members  of  Congress  until  after  the  fourth  of  July  The  inter- 


130  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

est  belonging  to  the  subject  will  be  sufficient,  I  hope,  to  justify 
these  details.* 

The  Congress  of  the  Revolution,  fellow-citizens,  sat  with 
closed  doors,  and  no  report  of  its  debates  was  ever  made.  The 
discussion,  therefore,  which  accompanied  this  great  measure,  has 
never  been  preserved,  except  in  memory  and  by  tradition.  But 
it  is,  I  believe,  doing  no  injustice  to  others  to  say,  that  the  gen 
eral  opinion  was,  and  uniformly  has  been,  that  in  debate,  on  the 
side  of  independence,  JOHN  ADAMS  had  no  equal.  The  great 
author  of  the  Declaration  himself  has  expressed  that  opinion  uni 
formly  and  strongly.  "  JOHN  ADAMS,"  said  he,  in  the  hearing  of 
him  who  has  now  the  honor  to  address  you,  "  JOHN  ADAMS  was 
our  colossus  on  the  floor.  Not  graceful,  not  elegant,  not  always 
fluent,  in  his  public  addresses,  he  yet  came  out  with  a  power, 
both  of  thought  and  of  expression,  which  moved  us  from  our 
seats." 

For  the  part  which  he  was  here  to  perform,  Mr.  Adams  doubt 
less  was  eminently  fitted.  He  possessed  a  bold  spirit,  which  dis 
regarded  danger,  and  a  sanguine  reliance  on  the  goodness  of  the 
cause,  and  the  virtues  of  the  people,  which  led  him  to  overlook 
all  obstacles.  His  character,  too,  had  been  formed  in  troubled 
times.  He  had  been  rocked  in  the  early  storms  of  the  contro 
versy,  and  had  acquired  a  decision  and  a  hardihood  proportioned 
to  the  severity  of  the  discipline  which  he  had  undergone. 

He  not  only  loved  the  American  cause  devoutly,  but  had 
studied  and  understood  it.  It  was  all  familiar  to  him.  He  had 
tried  his  powers  on  the  questions  which  it  involved,  often  and  in 
various  ways ;  and  had  brought  to  their  consideration  whatever 
of  argument  or  illustration  the  history  of  his  own  country,  the 
history  of  England,  or  the  stores  of  ancient  or  of  legal  learning 
could  furnish.  Every  grievance  enumerated  in  the  long  cata 
logue  of  the  Declaration  had  been  the  subject  of  his  discussion, 
and  the  object  of  his  remonstrance  and  reprobation.  From 
1760,  the  Colonies,  the  rights  of  the  Colonies,  the  liberties  of 
the  Colonies,  and  the  wrongs  inflicted  011  the  Colonies,  had  en 
gaged  his  constant  attention ;  and  it  has  surprised  those  who 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  it,  with  what  full  remem- 

*  The  official  copy  of  the  Declaration,  as  engrossed  and  signed  by  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  is  framed  and  preserved  in  the  Hall  over  the  Patent-Office  at 
Washington. 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  131 

brance  and  with  what  prompt  recollection  he  could  refer,  in  his 
extreme  old  age,  to  every  act  of  Parliament  affecting  the  Colo 
nies,  distinguishing  and  stating  their  respective  titles,  sections, 
and  provisions ;  and  to  all  the  Colonial  memorials,  remonstran 
ces,  and  petitions,  with  whatever  else  belonged  to  the  intimate 
and  exact  history  of  the  times  from  that  year  to  1775.  It  was, 
in  his  own  judgment,  between  these  years  that  the  American 
people  came  to  a  full  understanding  and  thorough  knowledge 
of  their  rights,  and  to  a  fixed  resolution  of  maintaining  them ; 
and  bearing  himself  an  active  part  in  all  important  transactions, 
the  controversy  with  England  being  then  in  effect  the  business 
of  his  life,  facts,  dates,  and  particulars  made  an  impression 
which  was  never  effaced.  He  was  prepared,  therefore,  by  edu 
cation  and  discipline,  as  well  as  by  natural  talent  and  natural 
temperament,  for  the  part  which  he  was  now  to  act. 

The  eloquence  of  Mr.  Adams  resembled  his  general  character, 
and  formed,  indeed,  a  part  of  it.  It  was  bold,  manly,  and  ener 
getic  ;  and  such  the  crisis  required.  When  public  bodies  are  to 
be  addressed  on  momentous  occasions,  when  great  interests  are 
at  stake,  and  strong  passions  excited,  nothing  is  valuable  in 
speech  farther  than  as  it  is  connected  with  high  intellectual  and 
moral  endowments.  Clearness,  force,  and  earnestness  are  the 
qualities  which  produce  conviction.  True  eloquence,  indeed, 
does  not  consist  in  speech.  It  cannot  be  brought  from  far. 
Labor  and  learning  may  toil  for  it,  but  they  will  toil  in  vain. 
Words  and  phrases  may  be  marshalled  in  every  way,  but  they 
cannot  compass  it.  It  must  exist  in  the  man,  in  the  subject,  and 
in  the  occasion.  Affected  passion,  intense  expression,  the  pomp 
of  declamation,  all  may  aspire  to  it ;  they  cannot  reach  it.  It 
comes,  if  it  come  at  all,  like  the  outbreaking  of  a  fountain  from 
the  earth,  or  the  bursting  forth  of  volcanic  fires,  with  spontaneous, 
original,  native  force.  The  graces  taught  in  the  schools,  the 
costly  ornaments  and  studied  contrivances  of  speech,  shock  and 
disgust  men,  when  their  own  lives,  and  the  fate  of  their  wives, 
their  children,  and  their  country,  hang  on  the  decision  of  the 
hour.  Then  words  have  lost  their  power,  rhetoric  is  vain,  and 
all  elaborate  oratory  contemptible.  Even  genius  itself  then 
feels  rebuked  and  subdued,  as  in  the  presence  of  higher  quali 
ties.  Then  patriotism  is  eloquent;  then  self-devotion  is  elo 
quent.  The  clear  conception,  outrunning  the  deductions  of 


132  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

logic,  the  high  purpose,  the  firm  resolve,  the  dauntless  spirit, 
speaking  on  the  tongue,  beaming  from  the  eye,  informing  every 
feature,  and  urging  the  whole  man  onward,  right  onward  to  his 
object,  —  this,  this  is  eloquence ;  or  rather  it  is  something  greater 
and  higher  than  all  eloquence,  it  is  action,  noble,  sublime,  god 
like  action. 

In  July,  1776,  the  controversy  had  passed  the  stage  of  argu 
ment.  An  appeal  had  been  made  to  force,  and  opposing  armies 
were  in  the  field.  Congress,  then,  was  to  decide  whether  the 
tie  which  had  so  long  bound  us  to  the  parent  state  was  to  be 
severed  at  once,  and  severed  for  ever.  All  the  Colonies  had 
signified  then*  resolution  to  abide  by  this  decision,  and  the  peo 
ple  looked  for  it  with  the  most  intense  anxiety.  And  surely, 
fellow-citizens,  never,  never  were  men  called  to  a  more  important 
political  deliberation.  If  we  contemplate  it  from  the  point 
where  they  then  stood,  no  question  could  be  more  full  of  inter 
est  ;  if  we  look  at  it  now,  and  judge  of  its  importance  by  its 
effects,  it  appears  of  still  greater  magnitude. 

Let  us,  then,  bring  before  us  the  assembly,  which  was  about 
to  decide  a  question  thus  big  with  the  fate  of  empire.  Let  us 
open  their  doors  and  look  in  upon  then*  deliberations.  Let  us 
survey  the  anxious  and  care-worn  countenances,  let  us  hear  the 
firm-toned  voices,  of  this  band  of  patriots. 

HANCOCK  presides  over  the  solemn  sitting ;  and  one  of  those 
not  yet  prepared  to  pronounce  for  absolute  independence  is  on 
the  floor,  and  is  urging  his  reasons  for  dissenting  from  the 
declaration. 

"  Let  us  pause !  This  step,  once  taken,  cannot  be  retraced. 
This  resolution,  once  passed,  will  cut  off  all  hope  of  reconcilia 
tion.  If  success  attend  the  arms  of  England,  we  shall  then  be 
no  longer  Colonies,  with  charters  and  with  privileges ;  these 
will  all  be  forfeited  by  this  act ;  and  we  shall  be  in  the  condition 
of  other  conquered  people,  at  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors.  For 
ourselves,  we  may  be  ready  to  run  the  hazard  ;  but  are  we  ready 
to  carry  the  country  to  that  length  ?  Is  success  so  probable  as 
to  justify  it?  Where  is  the  military,  where  the  naval  power, 
by  which  we  are  to  resist  the  whole  strength  of  the  arm  of 
England,  for  she  will  exert  that  strength  to  the  utmost  ?  Can 
we  rely  on  the  constancy  and  perseverance  of  the  people  ?  or 
will  they  not  act  as  the  ueople  of  other  countries  have  acted, 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  133 

and,  wearied  with  a  long  war,  submit,  in  the  end,  to  a  worse 
oppression  ?  While  we  stand  on  our  old  ground,  and  insist  on 
redress  of  grievances,  we  know  we  are  right,  and  are  not  answer 
able  for  consequences.  Nothing,  then,  can  be  imputed  to  us. 
But  if  we  now  change  our  object,  carry  our  pretensions  farther, 
and  set  up  for  absolute  independence,  we  shall  lose  the  sympathy 
of  mankind.  We  shall  no  longer  be  defending  what  we  pos 
sess,  but  struggling  for  something  which  we  never  did  possess, 
and  which  we  have  solemnly  and  uniformly  disclaimed  all  inten 
tion  of  pursuing,  from  the  very  outset  of  the  troubles.  Aban 
doning  thus  our  old  ground,  of  resistance  only  to  arbitrary  acts 
of  oppression,  the  nations  will  believe  the  whole  to  have  been 
mere  pretence,  and  they  will  look  on  us,  not  as  injured,  but  as 
ambitious  subjects.  I  shudder  before  this  responsibility.  It  will 
be  on  us,  if,  relinquishing  the  ground  on  which  we  have  stood 
so  long,  and  stood  so  safely,  we  now  proclaim  independence, 
and  carry  on  the  war  for  that  object,  while  these  cities  burn, 
these  pleasant  fields  whiten  and  bleach  with  the  bones  of  their 
owners,  and  these  streams  run  blood.  It  will  be  upon  us,  it  will 
be  upon  us,  if,  failing  to  maintain  this  unseasonable  and  ill- 
judged  declaration,  a  sterner  despotism,  maintained  by  military 
power,  shall  be  established  over  our  posterity,  when  we  ourselves, 
given  up  by  an  exhausted,  a  harassed,  a  misled  people,  shall 
have  expiated  our  rashness  and  atoned  for  our  presumption  on 
the  scaffold." 

It  was  for  Mr.  Adams  to  reply  to  arguments  like  these.  We 
know  his  opinions,  and  we  know  his  character.  He  would  com 
mence  with  his  accustomed  directness  and  earnestness. 

"  Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,  I  give  my  hand 
and  my  heart  to  this  vote.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  in  the  begin 
ning  we  aimed  not  at  independence.  But  there 's  a  Divinity 
which  shapes  our  ends.  The  injustice  of  England  has  driven 
us  to  arms ;  and,  blinded  to  her  own  interest  for  our  good,  she 
has  obstinately  persisted,  till  independence  is  now  within  our 
grasp.  We  have  but  to  reach  forth  to  it,  and  it  is  ours.  Why, 
then,  should  we  defer  the  Declaration  ?  Is  any  man  so  weak  as 
now  to  hope  for  a  reconciliation  with  England,  which  shall  leave 
either  safety  to  the  country  and  its  liberties,  or  safety  to  his  own 
life  and  his  own  honor  ?  Are  not  you,  Sir,  who  sit  in  that  chair, 
is  not  he,  our  venerable  colleague  near  you,  are  you  not  both 

VOL.  i.  12 


134  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

already  the  proscribed  and  predestined  objects  of  punishment 
and  of  vengeance  ?  Cut  off  from  all  hope  of  royal  clemency, 
what  are  you,  what  can  you  be,  while  the  power  of  England 
remains,  but  outlaws?  If  we  postpone  independence,  do  we 
mean  to  carry  on,  or  to  give  up,  the  war  ?  Do  we  mean  to  sub 
mit  to  the  measures  of  Parliament,  Boston  Port  Bill  and  all  ? 
Do  we  mean  to  submit,  and  consent  that  we  ourselves  shall  be 
ground  to  powder,  and  our  country  and  its  rights  trodden  down 
in  the  dust  ?  I  know  we  do  not  mean  to  submit.  We  never 
shall  submit.  Do  we  intend  to  violate  that  most  solemn  obli 
gation  ever  entered  into  by  men,  that  plighting,  before  God,  of 
our  sacred  honor  to  Washington,  when,  putting  him  forth  to 
incur  the  dangers  of  war,  as  well  as  the  political  hazards  of  the 
times,  we  promised  to  adhere  to  him,  in  every  extremity,  with 
our  fortunes  and  our  lives  ?  I  know  there  is  not  a  man  here, 
who  would  not  rather  see  a  general  conflagration  sweep  over  the 
land,  or  an  earthquake  sink  it,  than  one  jot  or  tittle  of  that 
plighted  faith  fall  to  the  ground.  For  myself,  having,  twelve 
months  ago,  in  this  place,  moved  you,  that  George  Washington 
be  appointed  commander  of  the  forces  raised,  or  to  be  raised, 
for  defence  of  American  liberty,*  may  my  right  hand  forget  her 
cunning,  and  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  I 
hesitate  or  waver  in  the  support  I  give  him. 

"  The  war,  then,  must  go  on.  We  must  fight  it  through.  And 
if  the  war  must  go  on,  why  put  off  longer  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  ?  That  measure  will  strengthen  us.  It  will  give  us 
character  abroad.  The  nations  will  then  treat  with  us,  which 
they  never  can  do  while  we  acknowledge  ourselves  subjects,  in 
arms  against  our  sovereign.  Nay,  I  maintain  that  England  her 
self  will  sooner  treat  for  peace  with  us  on  the  footing  of  indepen 
dence,  than  consent,  by  repealing  her  acts,  to  acknowledge  that 
her  whole  conduct  towards  us  has  been  a  course  of  injustice  and 
oppression.  Her  pride  will  be  less  wounded  by  submitting  to 
that  course  of  things  which  now  predestinates  our  independence, 
than  by  yielding  the  points  in  controversy  to  her  rebellious  sub 
jects.  The  former  she  would  regard  as  the  result  of  fortune ; 
the  latter  she  would  feel  as  her  own  deep  disgrace.  Why,  then, 
why  then,  Sir,  do  we  not  as  soon  as  possible  change  this  from 

*  See  Life  and  Works  of  John  Adams,  Vol.  II.  p.  417  et  seq 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  335 

a  civil  to  a  national  war  ?  And  since  we  must  fight  it  through, 
why  not  put  ourselves  in  a  state  to  enjoy  all  the  benefits  of 
victory,  if  we  gain  the  victory  ? 

"  If  we  fail,  it  can  be  no  worse  for  us.  But  we  shall  not  fail. 
The  cause  will  raise  up  armies ;  the  cause  will  create  navies. 
The  people,  the  people,  if  we  are  true  to  them,  will  carry  us, 
and  will  carry  themselves,  gloriously,  through  this  struggle.  I 
care  not  how  fickle  other  people  have  been  found.  I  know  the 
people  of  these  Colonies,  and  I  know  that  resistance  to  British 
aggression  is  deep  and  settled  in  their  hearts  and  cannot  be 
eradicated.  Every  Colony,  indeed,  has  expressed  its  willingness 
to  follow,  if  we  but  take  the  lead.  Sir,  the  Declaration  will  in 
spire  the  people  with  increased  courage.  Instead  of  a  long  and 
bloody  war  for  the  restoration  of  privileges,  for  redress  of  griev 
ances,  for  chartered  immunities,  held  under  a  British  king,  set 
before  them  the  glorious  object  of  entire  independence,  and  it 
will  breathe  into  them  anew  the  breath  of  life.  Read  this  Decla 
ration  at  the  head  of  the  army;  every  sword  will  be  drawn 
from  its  scabbard,  and  the  solemn  vow  uttered,  to  maintain  it, 
or  to  perish  on  the  bed  of  honor.  Publish  it  from  the  pulpit ; 
religion  will  approve  it,  and  the  love  of  religious  liberty  will 
cling  round  it,  resolved  to  stand  with  it,  or  fall  with  it.  Send  it 
to  the  public  halls;  proclaim  it  there;  let  them  hear  it  who 
heard  the  first  roar  of  the  enemy's  cannon ;  let  them  see  it  who 
saw  their  brothers  and  their  sons  fall  on  the  field  of  Bunker  Hill, 
and  in  the  streets  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  and  the  very  walls 
will  cry  out  in  its  support. 

u  Sir,  I  know  the  uncertainty  of  human  affairs,  but  I  see,  I 
see  clearly,  through  this  day's  business.  You  and  I,  indeed, 
may  rue  it.  We  may  not  live  to  the  time  when  this  Declaration 
shall  be  made  good.  We  may  die ;  die  colonists ;  die  slaves ; 
die,  it  may  be,  ignominiously  and  on  the  scaffold.  Be  it  so.  Be 
it  so.  If  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Heaven  that  my  country  shall 
require  the  poor  offering  of  my  life,  the  victim  shall  be  ready 
at  the  appointed  hour  of  sacrifice,  come  when  that  hour  may. 
But  while  I  do  live,  let  me  have  a  country,  or  at  least  the  hope 
of  a  country,  and  that  a  free  country. 

"  But  whatever  may  be  our  fate,  be  assured,  be  assured  that 
this  Declaration  will  stand.  It  may  cost  treasure,  and  it  may 
cost  blood ;  but  it  will  stand,  and  it  will  richly  compensate  for 


136  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

both.  Through  the  thick  gloom  of  the  present,  I  see  the  bright 
ness  of  the  future,  as  the  sun  in  heaven.  We  shall  make  this 
a  glorious,  an  immortal  day.  When  we  are  in  our  graves, 
our  children  will  honor  it.  They  will  celebrate  it  with  thanks 
giving,  with  festivity,  with  bonfires,  and  illuminations.  On 
its  annual  return  they  will  shed  tears,  copious,  gushing  tears, 
not  of  subjection  and  slavery,  not  of  agony  and  distress,  but  of 
exultation,  of  gratitude,  and  of  joy.  Sir,  before  God,  I  believe 
the  hour  is  come.  My  judgment  approves  this  measure,  and 
my  whole  heart  is  in  it.  All  that  I  have,  and  all  that  I  am,  and 
all  that  I  hope,  in  this  life,  I  am  now  ready  here  to  stake  upon 
it ;  and  I  leave  off  as  I  begun,  that  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish, 
I  am  for  the  Declaration.  It  is  my  living  sentiment,  and  by  the 
blessing  of  God  it  shall  be  my  dying  sentiment,  Independence, 
noW)  and  INDEPENDENCE  FOR  EVER."* 

And  so  that  day  shall  be  honored,  illustrious  prophet  and  pa 
triot  !  so  that  day  shall  be  honored,  and  as  often  as  it  returns, 
thy  renown  shall  come  along  with  it,  and  the  glory  of  thy  life, 
like  the  day  of  thy  death,  shall  not  fail  from  the  remembrance 
of  men. 

It  would  be  unjust,  fellow-citizens,  on  this  occasion,  while  we 
express  our  veneration  for  him  who  is  the  immediate  subject  of 
these  remarks,  were  we  to  omit  a  most  respectful,  affectionate, 
and  grateful  mention  of  those  other  great  men,  his  colleagues, 
who  stood  with  him,  and  with  the  same  spirit,  the  same  devo 
tion,  took  part  in  the  interesting  transaction.  HANCOCK,  the  pro 
scribed  HANCOCK,  exiled  from  his  home  by  a  military  governor, 
cut  off  by  proclamation  from  the  mercy  of  the  crown,  —  Heaven 
reserved  for  him  the  distinguished  honor  of  putting  this  great 
question  to  the  vote,  and  of  writing  his  own  name  first,  and 
most  conspicuously,  on  that  parchment  which  spoke  defiance  to 
the  power  of  the  crown  of  England.  There,  too,  is  the  name 
of  that  other  proscribed  patriot,  SAMUEL  ADAMS,  a  man  who 
hungered  and  thirsted  for  the  independence  of  his  country; 
who  thought  the  Declaration  halted  and  lingered,  being  himself 
not  only  ready,  but  eager,  for  it,  long  before  it  was  proposed ;  a 
man  of  the  deepest  sagacity,  the  clearest  foresight,  and  the  pro- 

*  On  the  authorship  of  this  speech,  see  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Discourse. 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  137 

foundest  judgment  in  men.  And  there  is  GERRY,  himself 
among  the  earliest  and  the  foremost  of  the  patriots,  found,  when 
the  battle  of  Lexington  summoned  them  to  common  counsels, 
by  the  side  of  WARREN  ;  a  man  who  lived  to  serve  his  country 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  to  die  in  the  second  place  in  the  gov 
ernment.  There,  too,  is  the  inflexible,  the  upright,  the  Spartan 
character,  ROBERT  TREAT  PAINE.  He  also  lived  to  serve  his 
country  through  the  struggle,  and  then  withdrew  from  her  coun 
cils,  only  that  he  might  give  his  labors  and  his  life  to  his  native 
State,  in  another  relation.  These  names,  fellow-citizens,  are 
the  treasures  of  the  Commonwealth ;  and  they  are  treasures 
which  grow  brighter  by  time. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  resume  the  narrative,  and  to  finish 
with  great  brevity  the  notice  of  the  lives  of  those  whose  virtues 
and  services  we  have  met  to  commemorate. 

Mr.  Adams  remained  in  Congress  from  its  first  meeting  till 
November,  1777,  when  he  was  appointed  Minister  to  France. 
He  proceeded  on  that  service  in  the  February  following,  em 
barking  in  the  frigate  Boston,  from  the  shore  of  his  native  town, 
at  the  foot  of  Mount  Wollaston.  The  year  following,  he  was 
appointed  commissioner  to  treat  of  peace  with  England.  Re 
turning  to  the  United  States,  he  was  a  delegate  from  Braintree 
in  the  Convention  for  framing  the  Constitution  of  this  Common 
wealth,  in  1780.*  At  the  latter  end  of  the  same  year,  he  again 
went  abroad  in  the  diplomatic  service  of  the  country,  and  was 
employed  at  various  courts,  and  occupied  with  various  negotia 
tions,  until  1788.  The  particulars  of  these  interesting  and  im 
portant  services  this  occasion  does  not  allow  time  to  relate.  In 
1782  he  concluded  our  first  treaty  with  Holland.  His  negotia 
tions  with  that  republic,  his  efforts  to  persuade  the  States- Gen 
eral  to  recognize  our  independence,  his  incessant  and  indefati 
gable  exertions  to  represent  the  American  cause  favorably  on 
the  Continent,  and  .to  counteract  the  designs  of  its  enemies, 
open  and  secret,  and  his  successful  undertaking  to  obtain  loans, 
on  the  credit  of  a  nation  yet  new  and  unknown,  are  among 
his  most  arduous,  most  useful,  most  honorable  services.  It 
was  his  fortune  to  bear  a  part  in  the  negotiation  for  peace  with 

*  In  this  Convention  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee  for  preparing 
the  draft  of  a  Constitution. 

12* 


138  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

England,  and  in  something  more  than  six  years  from  the  Decla 
ration  which  he  had  so  strenuously  supported,  he  had  the  satis 
faction  of  seeing  the  minister  plenipotentiary  of  the  crown  sub 
scribe  his  name  to  the  instrument  which  declared  that  his 
"  Britannic  Majesty  acknowledged  the  United  States  to  be  free, 
sovereign,  and  independent."  In  these  important  transactions, 
Mr.  Adams's  conduct  received  the  marked  approbation  of  Con 
gress  and  of  the  country. 

While  abroad,  in  1787,  he  published  his  Defence  of  the  Amer 
ican  Constitutions ;  a  work  of  merit  and  ability,  though  com 
posed  with  haste,  on  the  spur  of  a  particular  occasion,  in  the 
midst  of  other  occupations,  and  under  circumstances  not  admit 
ting  of  careful  revision.  The  immediate  object  of  the  work  was 
to  counteract  the  weight  of  opinions  advanced  by  several  popu 
lar  European  writers  of  that  day,  M.  Turgot,  the  Abbe  de 
Mably,  and  Dr.  Price,  at  a  time  when  the  people  of  the  United 
States  were  employed  in  forming  and  revising  their  systems  of 
government. 

Returning  to  the  United  States  in  1788,  he  found  the  new 
government  about  going  into  operation,  and  was  himself  elected 
the  first  Vice- President,  a  situation  which  he  filled  with  reputa 
tion  for  eight  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  he  was  raised  to 
the  Presidential  chair,  as  immediate  successor  to  the  immortal 
Washington.  In  this  high  station  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr. 
Jefferson,  after  a  memorable  controversy  between  their  respec 
tive  friends,  in  1801 ;  and  from  that  period  his  manner  of  life  has 
been  known  to  all  who  hear  me.  He  has  lived,  for  five-and- 
twenty  years,  with  every  enjoyment  that  could  render  old  age 
happy.  Not  inattentive  to  the  occurrences  of  the  times,  politi 
cal  cares  have  yet  not  materially,  or  for  any  long  time,  disturbed 
his  repose.  In  1820  he  acted  as  elector  of  President  and  Vice- 
President,  and  in  the  same  year  we  saw  him,  then  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five,  a  member  of  the  Convention  of  this  Commonwealth 
called  to  revise  the  Constitution.  Forty  years  before,  he  had 
been  one  of  those  who  formed  that  Constitution ;  and  he  had 
now  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  that  there  was  little  which  the 
people  desired  to  change.*  Possessing  all  his  faculties  to  the 

*  Upon  the  organization  of  this  body,  15th  November,  1820,  John  Adams 
was  elected  its  President ;  an  office  which  the  infirmities  of  age  compelled  him 
to  decline.  For  the  interesting  proceedings  of  the  Convention  on  this  occasion, 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  139 

end  of  his  long  life,  with  an  unabated  love  of  reading  and  con 
templation,  in  the  centre  of  interesting  circles  of  friendship  and 
affection,  he  was  blessed  in  his  retirement  with  whatever  of  re 
pose  and  felicity  the  condition  of  man  allows.  He  had,  also, 
other  enjoyments.  He  saw  around  him  that  prosperity  and 
general  happiness  which  had  been  the  object  of  his  public  cares 
and  labors.  No  man  ever  beheld  more  clearly,  and  for  a  longei 
time,  the  great  and  beneficial  effects  of  the  services  rendered  by 
himself  to  his  country.  That  liberty  which  he  so  early  defended, 
that  independence  of  which  he  was  so  able  an  advocate  and 
supporter,  he  saw,  we  trust,  firmly  and  securely  established. 
The  population  of  the  country  thickened  around  him  faster,  and 
extended  wider,  than  his  own  sanguine  predictions  had  antici 
pated  ;  and  the  wealth,  respectability,  and  power  of  the  nation 
sprang  up  to  a  magnitude  which  it  is  quite  impossible  he  could 
have  expected  to  witness  in  his  day.  He  lived  also  to  behold 
those  principles  of  civil  freedom  which  had  been  developed,  es 
tablished,  and  practically  applied  in  America,  attract  attention, 
command  respect,  and  awaken  imitation,  in  other  regions  of  the 
globe ;  and  well  might,  and  well  did,  he  exclaim,  "  Where  will 
the  consequences  of  the  American  Revolution  end  ?  " 

If  any  thing  yet  remain  to  fill  this  cup  of  happiness,  let  it  be 
added,  that  he  lived  to  see  a  great  and  intelligent  people  bestow 
the  highest  honor  in  their  gift  where  he  had  bestowed  his  own 
kindest  parental  affections  and  lodged  his  fondest  hopes.  Thus 
honored  in  life,  thus  happy  at  death,  he  saw  the  JUBILEE,  and 
he  died ;  and  with  the  last  prayers  which  trembled  on  his  lips 
was  the  fervent  supplication  for  his  country,  "  Independence  for 


Mr.  Jefferson,  having  been  occupied  in  the  years  1778  and 
1779  in  the  important  service  of  revising  the  laws  of  Virginia, 
was  elected  Governor  of  that  State,  as  successor  to  Patrick 
Henry,  and  held  the  situation  when  the  State  was  invaded  by 
the  British  arms.  In  1781  he  published  his  Notes  on  Virginia, 
a  work  which  attracted  attention  in  Europe  as  well  as  America, 

the  address  of  Chief  Justice  Parker,  and  the  reply  of  Mr.  Adams,  see  Journal 
of  Debates  and  Proceedings  in  the  Convention  of  Delegates  chosen  to  revise  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  p.  8  et  seq. 

*  For  an  account  of  Mr.  Webster's  last  interview  with  Mr.  Adams,  see  March's 
Reminiscences  of  Congress,  p.  62. 


140  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

dispelled  many  misconceptions  respecting  this  continent,  and 
gave  its  author  a  place  among  men  distinguished  for  science. 
In  November,  1783,  he  again  took  his  seat  in  the  Continental 
Congress,  but  in  the  May  following  was  appointed  Minister 
Plenipotentiary,  to  act  abroad,  in  the  negotiation  of  commercial 
treaties,  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Adams.  He  proceeded  to 
France  in  execution  of  this  mission,  embarking  at  Boston ;  and 
that  was  the  only  occasion  on  which  he  ever  visited  this  place. 
In  1785  he  was  appointed  Minister  to  France,  the  duties  of 
which  situation  he  continued  to  perform  until  October,  1789, 
when  he  obtained  leave  to  retire,  just  on  the  eve  of  that  tremen 
dous  revolution  which  has  so  much  agitated  the  world  in  our 
times.  Mr.  Jefferson's  discharge  of  his  diplomatic  duties  was 
marked  by  great  ability,  diligence,  and  patriotism ;  and  while  he 
resided  at  Paris,  in  one  of  the  most  interesting  periods,  his  char 
acter  for  intelligence,  his  love  of  knowledge  and  of  the  society 
of  learned  men,  distinguished  him  in  the  highest  circles  of  the 
French  capital.  No  court  in  Europe  had  at  that  time  in  Paris 
a  representative  commanding  or  enjoying  higher  regard,  for 
political  knowledge  or  for  general  attainments,  than  the  minister 
of  this  then  infant  republic.  Immediately  on  his  return  to  his 
native  country,  at  the  organization  of  the  government  under  the 
present  Constitution,  his  talents  and  experience  recommended 
him  to  President  Washington  for  the  first  office  in  his  gift.  He 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Department  of  State.  In  this 
situation,  also,  he  manifested  conspicuous  ability.  His  corre 
spondence  with  the  ministers  of  other  powers  residing  here,  and 
his  instructions  to  our  own  diplomatic  agents  abroad,  are  among 
our  ablest  state  papers.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  the  laws 
and  usages  of  nations,  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  immediate 
subject  before  him,  great  felicity,  and  still  greater  facility,  in 
writing,  show  themselves  in  whatever  effort  his  official  situation 
called  on  him  to  make.  It  is  believed  by  competent  judges, 
that  the  diplomatic  intercourse  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  from  the  first  meeting  of  the  Continental  Congress  in 
1774  to  the  present  time,  taken  together,  would  not  suffer,  in 
respect  to  the  talent  with  which  it  has  been  conducted,  by  com 
parison  with  any  thing  which  other  and  older  governments  can 
produce ;  and  to  the  attainment  of  this  respectability  and  dis 
tinction  Mr.  Jefferson  has  contributed  his  full  part. 


ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON.  141 

On  the  retirement  of  General  Washington  from  the  Presiden 
cy,  and  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams  to  that  office  in  1797,  he  was 
chosen  Vice-President.  While  presiding  in  this  capacity  over 
the  deliberations  of  the  Senate,  he  compiled  and  published  a 
Manual  of  Parliamentary  Practice,  a  work  of  more  labor  and 
more  merit  than  is  indicated  by  its  size.  It  is  now  received  as 
the  general  standard  by  which  proceedings  are  regulated,  not 
only  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  but  in  most  of  the  other  leg 
islative  bodies  in  the  country.  In  1801  he  was  elected  Presi 
dent,  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  reflected  in  1805,  by  a 
vote  approaching  towards  unanimity. 

From  the  time  of  his  final  retirement  from  public  life,  in  1808, 
Mr.  Jefferson  lived  as  became  a  wise  man.  Surrounded  by 
affectionate  friends,  his  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  undi- 
minished,  with  uncommon  health  and  unbroken  spirits,  he  was 
able  to  enjoy  largely  the  rational  pleasures  of  life,  and  to  par 
take  in  that  public  prosperity  which  he  had  so  much  contributed 
to  produce.  His  kindness  and  hospitality,  the  charm  of  his  con 
versation,  the  ease  of  his  manners,  the  extent  of  his  acquire 
ments,  and,  especially,  the  full  store  of  Revolutionary  incidents 
which  he  had  treasured  in  his  memory,  and  which  he  knew 
when  and  how  to  dispense,  rendered  his  abode  in  a  high  degree 
attractive  to  his  admiring  countrymen,  while  his  high  public  and 
scientific  character  drew  towards  him  every  intelligent  and  edu 
cated  traveller  from  abroad.  Both  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  the  respect  which  they 
so  largely  received  was  not  paid  to  their  official  stations.  They 
were  not  men  made  great  by  office ;  but  great  men,  on  whom  the 
country  for  its  own  benefit  had  conferred  office.  There  was 
that  in  them  which  office  did  not  give,  and  which  the  relinquish- 
ment  of  office  did  not,  and  could  not,  take  away.  In  their 
retirement,  in  the  midst  of  their  fellow-citizens,  themselves  pri 
vate  citizens,  they  enjoyed  as  high  regard  and  esteem  as  when 
filling  the  most  important  places  of  public  trust. 

There  remained  to  Mr.  Jefferson  yet  one  other  work  of  patri 
otism  and  beneficence,  the  establishment  of  a  university  in  his 
native  State.  To  this  object  he  devoted  years  of  incessant  and 
anxious  attention,  and  by  the  enlightened  liberality  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  Virginia,  and  the  cooperation  of  other  able  and  zealous 
friends,  he  lived  to  see  it  accomplished.  May  all  success  attend 


142  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

this  infant  seminary;  and  may  those  who  enjoy  its  advantages, 
as  often  as  their  eyes  shall  rest  on  the  neighboring  height,  recol 
lect  what  they  owe  to  their  disinterested  and  indefatigable  bene 
factor  ;  and  may  letters  honor  him  who  thus  labored  in  the  cause 
of  letters !  * 

Thus  useful,  and  thus  respected,  passed  the  old  age  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  But  time  was  on  its  ever-ceaseless  wing,  and  was 
now  bringing  the  last  hour  of  this  illustrious  man.  He  saw  its 
approach  with  undisturbed  serenity.  He  counted  the  moments 
as  they  passed,  and  beheld  that  his  last  sands  were  falling. 
That  day,  too,  was  at  hand  which  he  had  helped  to  make  im 
mortal.  One  wish,  one  hope,  if  it  were  not  presumptuous,  beat 
in  his  fainting  breast.  Could  it  be  so,  might  it  please  God,  he 
would  desire  once  more  to  see  the  sun,  once  more  to  look  abroad 
on  the  scene  around  him,  on  the  great  day  of  liberty.  Heaven, 
in  its  mercy,  fulfilled  that  prayer.  He  saw  that  sun,  he  enjoyed 
its  sacred  light,  he  thanked  God  for  this  mercy,  and  bowed  his 
aged  head  to  the  grave.  "  Felix,  non  vita?  tantum  claritate,  sed 
etiam  opportunitate  mortis." 

The  last  public  labor  of  Mr.  Jefferson  naturally  suggests  the 
expression  of  the  high  praise  which  is  due,  both  to  him  and  to 
Mr.  Adams,  for  their  uniform  and  zealous  attachment  to  learn 
ing,  and  to  the  cause  of  general  knowledge.  Of  the  advanta 
ges  of  learning,  indeed,  and  of  literary  accomplishments,  their 
own  characters  were  striking  recommendations  and  illustrations. 
They  were  scholars,  ripe  and  good  scholars ;  widely  acquainted 
with  ancient,  as  well  as  modern  literature,  and  not  altogether 
uninstructed  in  the  deeper  sciences.  Their  acquirements,  doubt 
less,  were  different,  and  so  were  the  particular  objects  of  their 
literary  pursuits  ;  as  their  tastes  and  characters,  in  these  re 
spects,  differed  like  those  of  other  men.  Being,  also,  men  of 
busy  lives,  with  great  objects  requiring  action  constantly  before 
them,  their  attainments  in  letters  did  not  become  showy  or  ob 
trusive.  Yet  I  would  hazard  the  opinion,  that,  if  we  could  now 

*  Mr.  Jefferson  himself  considered  his  services  in  establishing-  the  University 
of  Virginia  as  among  the  most  important  rendered  by  him  to  the  country.  In 
Mr.  Wirt's  Eulogy,  it  is  stated  that  a  private  memorandum  was  found  among  his 
papers,  containing  the  following  inscription  to  be  placed  on  his  monument :  — 
"  Here  was  buried  Thomas  Jefferson,  Author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
of  the  Statutes  of  Virginia  for  Religious  Freedom,  and  Father  of  the  University 
of  Virginia."  F'llogies  on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  p.  426. 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  143 

ascertain  all  the  causes  which  gave  them  eminence  and  distinc 
tion  in  the  midst  of  the  great  men  with  whom  they  acted,  we 
should  find  not  among  the  least  their  early  acquisitions  in  litera 
ture,  the  resources  which  it  furnished,  the  promptitude  and  facil 
ity  which  it  communicated,  and  the  wide  field  it  opened  for 
analogy  and  illustration ;  giving  them  thus,  on  every  subject,  a 
larger  view  and  a  broader  range,  as  well  for  discussion  as  for 
the  government  of  their  own  conduct. 

Literature  sometimes  disgusts,  and  pretension  to  it  much 
oftener  disgusts,  by  appearing  to  hang  loosely  on  the  character, 
like  something  foreign  or  extraneous,  not  a  part,  but  an  ill-ad 
justed  appendage ;  or  by  seeming  to  overload  and  weigh  it 
down  by  its  unsightly  bulk,  like  the  productions  of  bad  taste 
in  architecture,  where  there  is  massy  and  cumbrous  ornament 
without  strength  or  solidity  of  column.  This  has  exposed  learn 
ing,  and  especially  classical  learning,  to  reproach.  Men  have 
seen  that  it  might  exist  without  mental  superiority,  without  vig 
or,  without  good  taste,  and  without  utility.  But  in  such  cases 
classical  learning  has  only  not  inspired  natural  talent;  or,  at 
most,  it  has  but  made  original  feebleness  of  intellect,  and  natu 
ral  bluntness  of  perception,  something  more  conspicuous.  The 
question,  after  all,  if  it  be  a  question,  is,  whether  literature, 
ancient  as  well  as  modern,  does  not  assist  a  good  understand 
ing,  improve  natural  good  taste,  add  polished  armor  to  native 
strength,  and  render  its  possessor,  not  only  more  capable  of  de 
riving  private  happiness  from  contemplation  and  reflection,  but 
more  accomplished  also  for  action  in  the  affairs  of  life,  and 
especially  for  public  action.  Those  whose  memories  we  now 
honor  were  learned  men ;  but  their  learning  was  kept  in  its 
proper  place,  and  made  subservient  to  the  uses  and  objects  of 
life.  They  were  scholars,  not  common  nor  superficial ;  but  their 
scholarship  was  so  in  keeping  with  their  character,  so  blended 
and  inwrought,  that  careless  observers,  or  bad  judges,  not  seeing 
an  ostentatious  display  of  it,  might  infer  that  it  did  not  exist ;  for 
getting,  or  not  knowing,  that  classical  learning  in  men  who  act 
in  conspicuous  public  stations,  perform  duties  which  exercise  the 
faculty  of  writing,  or  address  popular,  deliberative,  or  judicial 
bodies,  is  often  felt  where  it  is  little  seen,  and  sometimes  felt 
more  effectually  because  it  is  not  seen  at  all. 

But  the  cause  of  knowledge,  in  a  more  enlarged  sense,  the 


144  ADAMS   AND  JEFFERSON. 

cause  of  general  knowledge  and  of  popular  education,  had 
no  warmer  friends,  nor  more  powerful  advocates,  than  Mr.  Ad 
ams  and  Mr.  Jefferson.  On  this  foundation  they  knew  the 
whole  republican  system  rested ;  and  this  great  and  all-impor 
tant  truth  they  strove  to  impress,  by  all  the  means  in  their 
power.  In  the  early  publication  already  referred  to,  Mr.  Adams 
expresses  the  strong  and  just  sentiment,  that  the  education  of 
the  poor  is  more  important,  even  to  the  rich  themselves,  than 
all  their  own  riches.  On  this  great  truth,  indeed,  is  founded 
that  unrivalled,  that  invaluable  political  and  moral  institution, 
our  own  blessing  and  the  glory  of  our  fathers,  the  New  England 
system  of  free  schools. 

As  the  promotion  of  knowledge  had  been  the  object  of  their 
regard  through  life,  so  these  great  men  made  it  the  subject  of 
their  testamentary  bounty.  Mr.  Jefferson  is  understood  to  have 
bequeathed  his  library  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  that  of 
Mr.  Adams  is  bestowed  on  the  inhabitants  of  Quincy. 

Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  fellow-citizens,  were  succes 
sively  Presidents  of  the  United  States.  The  comparative  merits 
of  their  respective  administrations  for  a  long  time  agitated  and 
divided  public  opinion.  They  were  rivals,  each  supported  by 
numerous  and  powerful  portions  of  the  people,  for  the  highest 
office.  This  contest,  partly  the  cause  and  partly  the  conse 
quence  of  the  long  existence  of  two  great  political  parties  in  the 
country,  is  now  part  of  the  history  of  our  government.  "We  may 
naturally  regret  that  any  thing  should  have  occurred  to  create 
difference  and  discord  between  those  who  had  acted  harmoni 
ously  and  efficiently  in  the  great  concerns  of  the  Revolution. 
But  this  is  not  the  time,  nor  this  the  occasion,  for  entering  into 
the  grounds  of  that  difference,  or  for  attempting  to  discuss  the 
merits  of  the  questions  which  it  involves.  As  practical  ques 
tions,  they  were  canvassed  when  the  measures  which  they  re 
garded  were  acted  on  and  adopted ;  and  as  belonging  to  history, 
the  time  has  not  come  for  their  consideration. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  wonderful,  that,  when  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  first  went  into  operation,  different  opinions 
should  be  entertained  as  to  the  extent  of  the  powers  conferred 
by  it.  Here  was  a  natural  source  of  diversity  of  sentiment.  It 
is  still  less  wonderful,  that  that  event,  nearly  contemporary  with 
our  government  under  the  present  Constitution,  which  so  en- 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  145 

tirely  shocked  all  Europe,  and  disturbed  our  relations  with  her 
leading  powers,  should  be  thought,  by  different  men,  to  have  dif 
ferent  bearings  on  our  own  prosperity ;  and  that  the  early  meas 
ures  adopted  by  the  government  of  the  United  States,  in  conse 
quence  of  this  new  state  of  things,  should  be  seen  in  opposite 
lights.  It  is  for  the  future  historian,  when  what  now  remains 
of  prejudice  and  misconception  shall  have  passed  away,  to  state 
these  different  opinions,  and  pronounce  impartial  judgment.  In 
the  mean  time,  all  good  men  rejoice,  and  well  may  rejoice,  that 
the  sharpest  differences  sprung  out  of  measures  which,  whether 
right  or  wrong,  have  ceased  with  the  exigencies  that  gave  them 
birth,  and  have  left  no  permanent  effect,  either  on  the  Constitu 
tion  or  on  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country.  This  remark, 
I  am  aware,  may  be  supposed  to  have  its  exception  in  one  meas 
ure,  the  alteration  of  the  Constitution  as  to  the  mode  of  choos 
ing  President ;  but  it  is  true  in  its  general  applicatio'n.  Thus 
the  course  of  policy  pursued  towards  France  in  1798,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  measures  of  commercial  restriction  com 
menced  in  1807,  on  the  other,  both  subjects  of  warm  and  severe 
opposition,  have  passed  away  and  left  nothing  behind  them. 
They  were  temporary,  and  whether  wise  or  unwise,  their  conse 
quences  were  limited  to  their  respective  occasions.  It  is  equally 
clear,  at  the  same  time,  and  it  is  equally  gratifying,  that  those 
measures  of  both  administrations  which  were  of  durable  impor 
tance,  and  which  drew  after  them  momentous  and  long  remain 
ing-  consequences,  have  received  general  approbation.  Such 
was  the  organization,  or  rather  the  creation,  of  the  navy,  in  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Adams ;  such  the  acquisition  of  Louisi 
ana,  in  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  The  country,  it  may  safely  be 
added,  is  not  likely  to  be  willing  either  to  approve,  or  to  repro 
bate,  indiscriminately,  and  in  the  aggregate,  all  the  measures 
of  either,  or  of  any,  administration.  The  dictate  of  reason  and 
of  justice  is,  that,  holding  each  one  his  own  sentiments  on  .the 
points  of  difference,  we  imitate  the  great  men  themselves  in  the 
forbearance  and  moderation  which  they  have  cherished,  and  in 
the  mutual  respect  and  kindness  which  they  have  been  so  much 
inclined  to  feel  and  to  reciprocate. 

No  men,  fellow-citizens,  ever  served  their  country  with  more 
entire  exemption  from  every  imputation  of  selfish  and  mercenary 
motives,  than  those  to  whose  memory  we  are  paying  these  proofs 

VOL.    I.  13 


146  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

of  respect.  A  suspicion  of  any  disposition  to  enrich  themselves, 
or  to  profit  by  their  public  employments,  never  rested  on  either. 
No  sordid  motive  approached  them.  The  inheritance  which 
they  have  left  to  their  children  is  of  their  character  and  their 
fame. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  will  detain  you  no  longer  by  this  faint  and 
feeble  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead.  Even  in 
other  hands,  adequate  justice  could  not  be  done  to  them,  within 
the  limits  of  this  occasion.  Their  highest,  their  best  praise,  is 
your  deep  conviction  of  their  merits,  your  affectionate  gratitude 
for  their  labors  and  their  services.  It  is  not  my  voice,  it  is  this 
cessation  of  ordinary  pursuits,  this  arresting  of  all  attention, 
these  solemn  ceremonies,  and  this  crowded  house,  which  speak 
their  eulogy.  Then*  fame,  indeed,  is  safe.  That  is  now  treas 
ured  up  beyond  the  reach  of  accident.  Although  no  sculptured 
marble  should  rise  to  their  memory,  nor  engraved  stone  bear 
record  of  their  deeds,  yet  will  their  remembrance  be  as  lasting  as 
the  land  they  honored.  Marble  columns  may,  indeed,  moulder 
into  dust,  time  may  erase  all  impress  from  the  crumbling  stone, 
but  their  fame  remains ;  for  with  AMERICAN  LIBERTY  it  rose,  and 
with  AMERICAN  LIBERTY  ONLY  can  it  perish.  It  was  the  last 
swelling  peal  of  yonder  choir,  "  THEIR  BODIES  ARE  BURIED  IN 

PEACE,  BUT  THEIR    NAME    LIVETH    EVERMORE."       I    Catch    that    SOl- 

emn  song,  I  echo  that  lofty  strain  of  funeral  triumph,  "  THEIR 

NAME    LIVETH    EVERMORE." 

Of  the  illustrious  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
there  now  remains  only  CHARLES  CARROLL.  He  seems  an  aged 
oak,  standing  alone  on  the  plain,  which  time  has  spared  a  little 
longer  after  all  its  contemporaries  have  been  levelled  with  the 
dust.  Venerable  object !  we  delight  to  gather  round  its  trunk, 
while  yet  it  stands,  and  to  dwell  beneath  its  shadow.  Sole  sur 
vivor  of  an  assembly  of  as  great  men  as  the  world  has  witnessed, 
in  a  transaction  one  of  the  most  important  that  history  records, 
what  thoughts,  what  interesting  reflections,  must  fill  his  elevated 
and  devout  soul !  If  he  dwell  on  the  past,  how  touching  its  recol 
lections  ;  if  he  survey  the  present,  how  happy,  how  joyous,  how 
full  of  the  fruition  of  that  hope,  which  his  ardent  patriotism  in 
dulged  ;  if  he  glance  at  the  future,  how  does  the  prospect  of  his 
country's  advancement  almost  bewilder  his  weakened  conception 


ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  147 

Fortunate,  distinguished  patriot!  Interesting  relic  of  the  past ! 
Let  him  know  that,  while  we  honor  the  dead,  we  do  not  forget 
the  living ;  and  that  there  is  not  a  heart  here  which  does  not  fer 
vently  pray,  that  Heaven  may  keep  him  yet  back  from  the  soci 
ety  of  his  companions. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  let  us  not  retire  from  this  occasion 
without  a  deep  and  solemn  conviction  of  the  duties  which  have 
devolved  upon  us.  This  lovely  land,  this  glorious  liberty,  these 
benign  institutions,  the  dear  purchase  of  our  fathers,  are  ours  ; 
ours  to  enjoy,  ours  to  preserve,  ours  to  transmit.  Generations 
past  and  generations  to  come  hold  us  responsible  for  this  sacred 
trust.  Our  fathers,  from  behind,  admonish  us,  with  their  anx 
ious  paternal  voices ;  posterity  calls  out  to  us,  from  the  bosom 
of  the  future;  the  world  turns  hither  its  solicitous  eyes;  all, 
all  conjure  us  to  act  wisely,  and  faithfully,  in  the  relation  which 
we  sustain.  We  can  never,  indeed,  pay  the  debt  which  is  upon 
us ;  but  by  virtue,  by  morality,  by  religion,  by  the  cultivation  of 
every  good  principle  and  every  good  habit,  we  may  hope  to 
enjoy  the  blessing,  through  our  day,  and  to  leave  it  unimpaired 
to  our  children.  Let  us  feel  deeply  how  much  of  what  we  are 
and  of  what  we  possess  we  owe  to  this  liberty,  and  to  these 
institutions  of  government.  Nature  has,  indeed,  given  us  a  soil 
which  yields  bounteously  to  the  hand  of  industry,  the  mighty 
and  fruitful  ocean  is  before  us,  and  the  skies  over  our  heads  shed 
health  and  vigor.  But  what  are  lands,  and  seas,  and  skies,  to 
civilized  man,  without  society,  without  knowledge,  without  mor 
als,  without  religious  culture;  and  how  can  these  be  enjoyed,  in 
all  their  extent  and  all  their  excellence,  but  under  the  protection 
of  wise  institutions  and  a  free  government?  Fellow-citizens, 
there  is  not  one  of  us,  there  is  not  one  of  us  here  present,  who  does 
not,  at  this  moment,  and  at  every  moment,  experience,  in  his 
own  condition,  and  in  the  condition  of  those  most  near  and  dear 
to  him,  the  influence  and  the  benefits  of  this  liberty  and  these 
institutions.  Let  us  then  acknowledge  the  blessing,  let  us  feel 
it  deeply  and  powerfully,  let  us  cherish  a  strong  affection  for  it, 
and  resolve  to  maintain  and  perpetuate  it.  The  blood  of  our  fa 
thers,  let  it  not  have  been  shed  in  vain ;  the  great  hope  of  pos 
terity,  let  it  not  be  blasted. 

The  striking  attitude,  too,  in  which  we  stand  to  the  world 


148  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

around  us,  a  topic  to  which,  I  fear,  I  advert  too  often,  and  dwell 
on  too  long,  cannot  be  altogether  omitted  here.  Neither  indi 
viduals  nor  nations  can  perform  their  part  well,  until  they  under 
stand  and  feel  its  importance,  and  comprehend  and  justly  appre 
ciate  all  the  duties  belonging  to  it.  It  is  not  to  inflate  national 
vanity,  nor  to  swell  a  light  and  empty  feeling  of  self-importance, 
but  it  is  that  we  may  judge  justly  of  our  situation,  and  of  our 
own  duties,  that  I  earnestly  urge  upon  you  this  consideration  of 
our  position  and  our  character  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  but  by  those  who  would  dispute  against 
the  sun,  that  with  America,  and  in  America,  a  new  era  com 
mences  in  human  affairs.  This  era  is  distinguished  by  free 
representative  governments,  by  entire  religious  liberty,  by  im 
proved  systems  of  national  intercourse,  by  a  newly  awakened 
and  an  unconquerable  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  and  by  a  diffusion 
of  knowledge  through  the  community,  such  as  has  been  before 
altogether  unknown  and  unheard  of.  America,  America,  our 
country,  fellow-citizens,  our  own  dear  and  native  land,  is  insep 
arably  connected,  fast  bound  up,  in  fortune  and  by  fate,  with 
these  great  interests.  If  they  fall,  we  fall  with  them ;  if  they 
stand,  it  will  be  because  we  have  maintained  them.  Let  us 
contemplate,  then,  this  connection,  which  binds  the  prosperity  of 
others  to  our  own ;  and  let  us  manfully  discharge  all  the  duties 
which  it  imposes.  If  we  cherish  the  virtues  and  the  principles  of 
our  fathers,  Heaven  will  assist  us  to  carry  on  the  work  of  human 
liberty  and  human  happiness.  Auspicious  omens  cheer  us. 
Great  examples  are  before  us.  Our  own  firmament  now  shines 
brightly  upon  our  path.  WASHINGTON  is  in  the  clear,  upper  sky. 
These  other  stars  have  now  joined  the  American  constellation ; 
they  circle  round  their  centre,  and  the  heavens  beam  with  new 
light.  Beneath  this  illumination  let  us  walk  the  course  of  life, 
and  at  its  close  devoutly  commend  our  beloved  country,  the 
common  parent  of  us  all,  to  the  Divine  Benignity. 


NOTE. 


Page  136. 

THE  question  has  often  been  asked,  whether  the  anonymous  speech 
against  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  speech  in  support  of  it 
ascribed  to  John  Adams  in  the  preceding  Discourse,  are  a  portion  of  the 
debates  which*  actually  took  place  in  1776  in  the  Continental  Congress. 
Not  only  has  this  inquiry  been  propounded  in  the  public  papers,  but  sev 
eral  letters  on  the  subject  have  been  addressed  to  Mr.  Webster  and  his 
friends.  For  this  reason,  it  may  be  proper  to  state,  that  those  speeches 
were  composed  by  Mr.  Webster,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  histori 
ans,  as  embodying  in  an  impressive  form  the  arguments  relied  upon  by 
the  friends  and  opponents  of  the  measure,  respectively.  They  of  course 
represent  the  speeches  that  were  actually  made  on  both  sides,  but  no  re 
port  of  the  debates  of  this  period  has  been  preserved,  and  the  orator  on 
the  present  occasion  had  no  aid  in  framing  these  addresses,  but  what  was 
furnished  by  general  tradition  and  the  known  line  of  argument  pursued 
by  the  speakers  and  writers  of  that  day  for  and  against  the  measure  of 
Independence.  The  first  sentence  of  the  speech  ascribed  to  Mr.  Adams 
was  of  course  suggested  by  the  parting  scene  with  Jonathan  Sewall,  as 
described  by  Mr.  Adams  himself,  in  the  Preface  to  the  Letters  of  Novan- 
glus  and  Massachusettensis. 

So  much  interest  has  been  taken  in  this  subject,  that  it  has  been  thought 
proper,  by  way  of  settling  the  question  in  the  most  authentic  manner,  to 
give  publicity  to  the  following  answer,  written  by  Mr.  Webster  to  one  of 
the  letters  of  inquiry  above  alluded  to. 

"  Washington,  22  January,  1846. 
"  DEAR  SIR  :  — 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the 
18th  instant.  Its  contents  hardly  surprise  me,  as  I  have  received  very 
many  similar  communications. 

"  Your  inquiry  is  easily  answered.     The  Congress  of  the  Revolution 
sat  with  closed  doors.     Its  proceedings  were  made  known  to  the  public 
13* 


150  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 

from  time  to  time,  by  printing  its  journal ;  but  the  debates  were  not  pub 
lished.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  not  existing,  in  print  or  manuscript, 
the  speech,  or  any  part  or  fragment  of  the  speech,  delivered  by  Mr.  Ad 
ams  on  the  question  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  We  only  know 
from  the  testimony  of  his  auditors,  that  he  spoke  with  remarkable  ability 
and  characteristic  earnestness. 

"  The  day  after  the  Declaration  was  made,  Mr.  Adams,  in  writing  to  a 
friend,*  declared  the  event  to  be  one  that '  ought  to  be  commemorated, 
as  the  day  of  deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty. 
It  ought  to  be  solemnized  with  pomp  and  parade,  with  shows,  games, 
sports,  guns,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illuminations,  from  one  end  of  this  conti 
nent  to  the  other,  from  this  time  forward,  for  evermore.' 

"  And  on  the  day  of  his  death,  hearing  the  noise  of  bells  and  cannon, 
he  asked  the  occasion.  On  being  reminded  that  it  was  '  Independent 
day,'  he  replied, c  Independence  for  ever ! '  These  expressions  were  in 
troduced  into  the  speech  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  him.  For  the 
rest,  I  must  be  answerable.  The  speech  was  written  by  me,  in  my  house 
in  Boston,  the  day  before  the  delivery  of  the  Discourse  in  Faneuil  Hall ; 
a  poor  substitute,  I  am  sure  it  would  appear  to  be,  if  we  could  now  see 
the  speech  actually  made  by  Mr.  Adams  on  that  transcendency  impor 
tant  occasion. 

"  I  am,  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"DANIEL  WEBSTER." 

*  See  Letters  of  John  Adams  to  his  Wife,  Vol.  I.  p.  128,  note. 


THE  ELECTION   OF  1825. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


IT  has  already  been  observed  in  the  Introductory  Memoir,  that,  from 
the  return  of  peace  in  1815,  a  tendency  manifested  itself  in  many  parts 
of  the  country  toward  a  dissolution  of  the  old  parties.  The  overwrought 
feelings  of  the  people  demanded  repose.  The  subject-matter  of  several 
of  the  points  of  party  dissension  had  expired  with  the  war.  New  ques 
tions  of  great  public  interest,  traversing  the  old  party  lines,  had  sprung  up. 
General  Jackson,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Monroe,  in  1817,  on  the 
subject  of  the  formation  of  his  cabinet,  had  advised  him  to  discard  the 
former  party  divisions.  In  the  progress  of  his  eight  years'  administration, 
it  was  every  day  more  and  more  apparent,  that  the  old  party  influences 
had  spent  their  force.  It  became  at  last  impossible  to  recognize  their 
continued  existence. 

With  the  approach  of  the  national  election  in  the  autumn  of  1824,  at 
which  four  candidates  were  supported  for  the  office  of  President,  no 
thoughts  were  entertained  in  any  quarter  of  recommending  either  of  them 
as  a  candidate  to  be  supported  or  opposed  by  one  or  the  other  of  the  an 
cient  parties.  If  there  was  any  seeming  departure  from  this  principle,  it 
must  have  been  to  some  quite  limited  extent,  and  for  supposed  advan 
tage  in  narrow  localities.  In  the  Union  at  large,  no  such  attempt  was 
made.  The  several  candidates  were  sustained  on  broad  national  grounds. 

This  was  eminently  the  case  in  Massachusetts,  where  a  very  large  ma 
jority  of  the  people,  assuming  the  name  of  National  Republicans,  and 
without  reference  to  former  divisions,  were  united  in  the  support  of  their 
fellow-citizen,  John  Quincy  Adams.  At  the  State  elections  next  suc 
ceeding  his  accession  to  the  Presidency,  in  the  spring  of  1825,  the  candi 
dates  for  the  offices  of  Governor  and  Lieutenant-Governor,  who,  at  the 
last  contested  election,  had  been  brought  forward  by  the  Democratic  party, 
were  almost  unanimously  supported,  and  a  union  ticket  for  Senators  was 
nominated  in  most  of  the  counties  of  the  State.  Such  was  the  case  in 
Suffolk  County  ;  and  at  a  meeting  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  without  distinc 
tion  of  party,  to  ratify  these  nominations,  the  following  remarks  were 
made  by  Mr.  Webster. 


THE  ELECTION  OF  1825.' 


MR.  WEBSTER  said,  he  was  quite  unaccustomed  to  appear  in 
that  place ;  having  on  no  occasion  addressed  his  fellow-citizens 
there,  either  to  recommend  or  to  oppose  the  support  of  any  can 
didates  for  public  office.  He  had  long  been  of  opinion,  that  to 
preserve  the  distinction  and  the  hostility  of  political  parties  was 
not  consistent  with  the  highest  degree  of  public  good.  At  the 
same  time,  he  did  not  find  fault  with  the  conduct,  nor  question 
the  motives,  of  those  who  thought  otherwise.  But,  entertaining 
this  opinion,  he  had  habitually  abstained  from  attending  on 
those  occasions  on  which  the  merits  of  public  men,  and  of  can 
didates  for  office,  were  discussed,  necessarily  with  more  or  less 
reference  to  party  attachment  and  party  organization. 

The  present  was  an  occasion  of  a  different  kind.  The  senti 
ment  which  had  called  this  meeting  together  was  one  of  union 
and  conciliation ;  a  sentiment  so  congenial  to  his  own  feelings, 
and  to  his  opinion  of  the  public  interest,  that  he  could  not  resist 
the  inclination  to  be  present,  and  to  express  his  entire  and  hear 
ty  concurrence. 

He  should  forbear,  he  said,  from  all  remarks  upon  the  partic 
ular  names  which  had  been  recommended  by  the  committee. 
They  had  been  selected,  he  must  presume,  fairly,  and  with 
due  consideration,  by  those  who  were  appointed  for  that  pur 
pose.  In  cases  of  this  sort,  every  one  cannot  expect  to  find 
every  thing  precisely  as  he  might  wish  it ;  but  those  who  con 
curred  in  the  general  sentiment  which  dictated  the  selection 
would  naturally  allow  that  sentiment  to  prevail  as  far  as  possi 
ble  over  particular  objections. 

*  Speech  delivered  at  a  Meeting  of  Citizens  of  Boston,  held  in  Faneuil  Hall  on 
the  Evening  of  April  3d,  1825,  preparatory  to  the  General  Election  in  Massa 
chusetts. 


156  THE  ELECTION  OF   1825. 

On  the  general  question  he  would  make  a  few  remarks,  beg 
ging  the  indulgence  of  the  meeting  if  he  should  say  any  thing 
which  might  with  more  propriety  proceed  from  others. 

He  hardly  conceived  how  well  disposed  and  intelligent  minds 
could  differ  as  to  the  question,  whether  party  contest  and  party 
strife,  organized,  systematic,  and  continued,  were  of  themselves 
desirable  ingredients  in  the  composition  of  society.  Difference 
of  opinion  on  political  subjects,  honorable  competition,  and  em 
ulous  rivalry,  may  indeed  be  useful.  But  these  are  very  differ 
ent  things  from  organized  and  systematic  party  combinations. 
He  admitted,  it  was  true,  that  party  associations  were  some 
times  unavoidable,  and  perhaps  necessary  to  the  accomplish 
ment  of  other  ends  and  purposes.  But  this  did  not  prove  that, 
of  themselves,  they  were  good ;  or  that  they  should  be  contin 
ued  and  preserved  for  their  own  sake,  when  there  had  ceased  to 
be  any  object  to  be  effected  by  them. 

But  there  were  those  who  supposed,  that,  whether  political 
party  distinctions  were  or  were  not  useful,  it  was  impossible  to 
abolish  them.  Now  he  thought,  on  the  contrary,  that,  under 
present  circumstances,  it  was  quite  impossible  to  continue  them. 
New  parties,  indeed,  might  arise,  growing  out  of  new  events  or 
new  questions ;  but  as  to  those  old  parties  which  had  sprung 
from  controversies  now  no  longer  pending,  or  from  feelings 
which  time  and  other  causes  had  now  changed,  or  greatly  al 
layed,  he  did  not  believe  that  they  could  long  remain.  Efforts, 
indeed,  made  to  that  end,  with  zeal  and  perseverance,  might  de 
lay  then*  extinction,  but,  he  thought,  could  not  prevent  it.  There 
was  nothing  to  keep  alive  these  distinctions  in  the  interests  and 
objects  which  now  engaged  society.  New  questions  and  new 
objects  arise,  having  no  connection  with  the  subjects  of  past 
controversies,  and  present  interest  overcomes  or  absorbs  the 
recollection  of  former  controversies.  Those  who  are  united  on 
these  existing  questions  and  present  interests  will  not  be  dis 
posed  to  weaken  their  efforts  to  promote  them,  by  angry  reflec 
tions  on  past  differences.  If  there  were  nothing  in  things  to 
divide  about,  he  thought  the  people  not  likely  to  maintain  sys 
tematic  controversies  about  men.  They  have  no  interest  in  so 
doing.  Associations  formed  to  support  principles  may  be  called 
parties ;  but  if  they  have  no  bond  of  union  but  adherence  to 
particular  men,  they  become  factions. 


THE   ELECTION  OF   1825.  157 

The  people,  in  his  opinion,  were  at  present  grateful  to  all  par 
ties  for  whatever  of  good  they  had  accomplished,  and  indulgent 
to  all  for  whatever  of  error  they  had  committed ;  and,  with  these 
feelings,  were  now  mainly  intent  on  the  great  objects  which 
affected  their  present  interests.  There  might  be  exceptions  to 
this  remark ;  he  was  afraid  there  were ;  but,  nevertheless,  such 
appeared  to  him  to  be  the  general  feeling  in  the  country.  It 
was  natural  that  some  prejudices  should  remain  longer  than  their 
causes,  as  the  waves  lash  the  shore  for  a  time  after  the  storm 
has  subsided ;  but  the  tendency  of  the  elements  was  to  repose. 
Monopolies  of  all  sorts  were  getting  out  of  fashion ;  they  were 
yielding  to  liberal  ideas,  and  to  the  obvious  justice  and  expe 
diency  of  fair  competition. 

An  administration  of  the  general  government,  which  had 
been  in  general  highly  satisfactory  to  the  country,  had  now 
closed.*  He  was  not  aware  that  it  could  with  propriety  be 
said,  that  that  administration  had  been  either  supported  or  op 
posed  by  any  party  associations  or  "on  any  party  principles. 
Certain  it  was,  that,  as  far  as  there  had  been  any  organized  op 
position  to  the  administration,  it  had  had  nothing  to  do  with 
former  parties.  A  new  administration  had  now  commenced,  and 
he  need  hardly  say  that  the  most  liberal  and  conciliatory  prin 
ciples  had  been  avowed  in  the  Inaugural  Address  of  the  newly 
elected  President.  It  could  not  be  doubted  that  his  administra 
tion  would  conform  to  those  principles.  Thus  far,  he  believed,  its 
course  had  given  general  satisfaction.  After  what  they  all  had 
seen  in  relation  to  the  gentleman  holding  the  highest  appoint 
ment  in  the  executive  department  under  the  President,  he  would 
take  this  opportunity  to  say,  that,  having  been  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  for  six  years-,  during  the  greater  part 
of  which  time  Mr.  Clay  had  presided  in  that  House,  he  was 
most  happy  in  being  able,  in  a  manner  less  formal  and  more  ex 
plicit  than  by  concurring  in  the  usual  vote  of  thanks,  to  express 
his  own  opinion  of  his  liberality,  independence,  and  honorable 
feeling.  And  he  would  take  this  occasion  also  to  add,  if  his 
opinion  could  be  of  any  value  in  such  a  case,  that  he  thought 
nothing  more  unfounded  than  that  that  gentleman  owed  his 
present  situation  to  any  unworthy  compromise  or  arrangement 

*  That  of  President  Monroe,  which  commenced  on  the  4th  of  March  1817, 
and  continued  for  two  terms,  till  the  4th  of  March,  1825. 

VOL.    I.  14 


158  THE  ELECTION  OF   1825. 

whatever.  He  owed  it  to  his  talent,  to  his  prominent  standing 
in  the  community,  to  his  course  of  public  sendee,  not  now  a 
short  one,  and  to  the  high  estimation  in  which  he  stands  with 
that  part  of  the  country  to  which  he  belongs. 

Remarks,  Mr.  Webster  proceeded  to  say,  had  been  made  from 
the  chair,  very  kind  and  partial,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he 
had  discharged  the  duties  which  he  owed  to  his  constituents  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  He  wished  to  say,  that  if  he 
had  been  able  to  render  any,  the  humblest  services,  either  to  the 
public  or  his  constituents,  in  that  place,  it  was  owing  wholly  to 
the  liberal  manner  in  which  his  efforts  there  had  been  received. 

Having  alluded  to  the  Inaugural  Address,  he  did  not  mean  in 
the  slightest  degree  to  detract  from  its  merits,  when  he  now  said, 
that,  in  his  opinion,  if  either  of  the  other  candidates  had  suc 
ceeded  in  the  election,  he  also  would  have  adopted  a  liberal  course 
of  policy.  He  had  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  sentiments  of 
either  of  those  gentlemen  were,  in  this  respect,  narrow  or  con 
tracted.  He  fully  believed  the  contrary,  in  regard  to  both  of 
them ;  but  if  they  had  been  otherwise,  he  thought  still  that  ex 
pediency  or  necessity  would  have  controlled  their  inclinations. 

I  forbear,  said  Mr.  Webster,  from  pursuing  these  remarks  far 
ther.  I  repeat,  that  I  do  not  complain  of  those  who  have  hither 
to  thought,  or  who  still  think,  that  party  organization  is  neces 
sary  to  the  public  good.  I  do  not  question  then1  motives  ;  and  I 
wish  to  be  tolerant  even  to  those  who  think  that  toleration 
ought  not  to  be  indulged. 

It  is  said,  Sir,  that  prosperity  sometimes  hardens  the  heart. 
Perhaps,  also,  it  may  sometimes  have  a  contrary  effect,  and  ele 
vate  and  liberalize  the  feelings.  If  this  can  ever  be  the  result 
of  such  a  cause,  there  is  certainly  in  the  present  condition  of 
the  country  enough  to  inspire  the  most  grateful  and  the  kindest 
feelings.  We  have  a  common  stock  both  of  happiness  and  of 
distinction,  of  which  we  are  all  entitled,  as  citizens  of  the  country, 
to-  partake.  We  may  all  rejoice  in  the  general  prosperity,  in  the 
peace  and  security  which  we  enjoy,  and  in  the  brilliant  success 
which  has  thus  far  attended  our  republican  institutions.  These 
are  circumstances  which  may  well  excite  in  us  all  a  noble  pride. 
Our  civil  and  political  institutions,  while  they  answer  for  us  all 
the  great  ends  designed  by  them,  furnish  at  the  same  time  an 
example  to  others,  and  diffuse  blessings  beyond  our  own  limits. 


THE  ELECTION  OF   1825.  159 

In  whatever  part  of  the  globe  men  are  found  contending  for  po 
litical  liberty,  they  look  to  the  United  States  with  a  feeling  of 
brotherhood,  and  put  forth  a  claim  of  kindred.  The  South  Amer 
ican  states,  especially,  exhibit  a  most  interesting  spectacle.  Let 
the  great  men  who  formed  our  constitutions  of  government,  who 
still  survive,  and  let  the  children  of  those  who  have  gone  to  then- 
graves,  console  themselves  with  the  reflection,  that,  whether  they 
have  risen  or  fallen  in  the  little  contests  of  party,  they  have  not 
only  established  the  liberty  and  happiness  of  their  own  native 
land,  but  have  conferred  blessings  beyond  their  own  country, 
and  beyond  their  own  thoughts,  on  millions  of  men  and  on 
successions  of  generations.  Under  the  influence  of  these  insti 
tutions,  received  and  adopted  in  principle  from  our  example,  the 
whole  southern  continent  has  shaken  off  its  colonial  subjection. 
A  new  world,  filled  with  fresh  and  interesting  nations,  has  risen 
to  our  sight.  America  seems  again  discovered;  not  to  geog 
raphy,  but  to  commerce,  to  social  intercourse,  to  intelligence,  to 
civilization,  and  to  liberty.  Fifty  years  ago,  some  of  those  who 
now  hear  me,  and  the  fathers  of  many  others,  listened  in  this 
place  to  those  mighty  leaders,  Otis  and  Adams.  When  they 
then  uttered  the  spirit-stirring  sounds  of  Independence  and  Lib 
erty,  there  was  not  a  foot  of  land  on  the  continent,  inhabited  by 
civilized  man,  that  did  not  acknowledge  the  dominion  of  Euro 
pean  power.  Thank  God,  at  this  moment,  from  this  place  to  the 
south  pole,  and  from  sea  to  sea,  there  is  hardly  a  foot  of  land 
that  does. 

And,  Sir,  when  these  states,  thus  newly  disenthralled  and 
emancipated,  assume  the  tone  and  bear  the  port  of  indepen 
dence,  what  language  and  what  ideas  do  we  find  associated 
with  their  newly  acquired  liberty  ?  They  speak,  Sir,  of  consti 
tutions,  of  declarations  of  rights,  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,  of 
a  congress,  and  of  representative  government.  Where,  Sir,  did 
they  learn  these  ?  And  when  they  have  applied  to  their  great 
leader,  and  the  founder  of  their  states,  the  language  of  praise 
and  commendation  till  they  have  exhausted  it,  when  unsatisfied 
gratitude  can  express  itself  no  otherwise,  do  they  not  call  him 
Hieir  WASHINGTON?  Sir,  the  Spirit  of  Continental  Indepen 
dence,  the  Genius  of  American  Liberty,  which  in  earlier  times 
tried  her  infant  voice  in  the  hails  and  on  the  hills  of  New  Eng 
land,  utters  it  now,  with  power  that  seems  to  wake  the  dead,  on 
the  plains  of  Mexico,  and  along  the  sides  of  the  Andes. 


160  THE  ELECTION  OF   1825. 

"  Her  path,  where'er  the  goddess  roves, 
Glory  pursues,  and  generous  shame, 
The  unconquerable  mind,  and  Freedom's  holy  flame." 

There  is  one  other  point  of  view.  Sir,  in  regard  to  which  I 
will  say  a  few  words,  though  perhaps  at  some  hazard  of  misin 
terpretation. 

In  the  wonderful  spirit  of  improvement  and  enterprise  which 
animates  the  country,  we  may  be  assured  that  each  quarter  will 
naturally  exert  its  power  in  favor  of  objects  in  which  it  is  inter 
ested.  This  is  natural  and  unavoidable.  Each  portion,  there 
fore,  will  use  its  best  means.  If  the  West  feels  a  strong  interest 
in  clearing  the  navigation  of  its  mighty  streams,  and  opening 
roads  through  its  vast  forests,  if  the  South  is  equally  zealous  to 
push  the  production  and  augment  the  prices  of  its  great  staples, 
it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  these  objects  will  be  pursued  by 
the  best  means  which  offer  themselves.  And  it  may  therefore 
well  deserve  consideration,  whether  the  commercial  and  navigat 
ing  and  manufacturing  interests  of  the  North  do  not  call  on  us 
to  aid  and  support  them,  by  united  counsels  and  united  efforts. 
But  I  abstain  from  enlarging  on  this  topic.  Let  me  rather 
say,  that  in  regard  to  the  whole  country  a  new  era  has  arisen. 
In  a  time  of  peace,  the  proper  pursuits  of  peace  engage  society 
with  a  degree  of  enterprise  and  an  intenseness  of  application 
heretofore  unknown.  New  objects  are  opening,  and  new  re 
sources  developed,  on  every  side.  We  tread  on  a  broader 
theatre  ;  and  if,  instead  of  acting  our  parts  according  to  the 
novelty  and  importance  of  the  scene,  we  waste  our  strength  in 
mutual  crimination  and  recrimination  concerning  the  past,  we 
shall  resemble  those  navigators,  who,  having  escaped  from  some 
crooked  and  narrow  river  to  the  sea,  now  that  the  whole  ocean 
is  before  them,  should,  nevertheless,  occupy  themselves  with  the 
differences  which  happened  as  they  passed  along  among  the 
rocks  and  the  shallows,  instead  of  opening  their  eyes  to  the  wide 
horizon  around  them,  spreading  their  sail  to  the  propitious  gale 
that  woos  it,  raising  their  quadrant  to  the  sun,  and  grasping  the 
helm  with  the  conscious  hand  of  a  master. 


DINNER   AT    FANETJIL    HALL, 


14 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 


AT  a  public  dinner  given  him  on  the  5th  of  June,  1828,  by  the  citizens 
of  Boston  (Hon.  T.  H.  Perkins  in  the  chair),  as  a  mark  of  respect  for 
his  services  as  Senator  of  the  United  States,  and  late  their  Representative 
in  Congress,  after  the  annunciation  of  the  following  toast,  "  Our  distin 
guished  guest, —  worthy  the  noblest  homage  which  freemen  can  give  or 
a  freeman  receive,  the  homage  of  their  hearts,"  Mr.  Webster  rose  and 
spoke  as  follows  :  — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  —  The  honor  conferred  by  this  occasion,  as 
well  as  the  manner  in  which  the  meeting  has  been  pleased  to 
receive  the  toast  which  has  now  been  proposed  to  them  from  the 
chair,  requires  from  me  a  most  respectful  acknowledgment  and 
a  few  words  of  honest  and  sincere  thanks.  I  should,  indeed,  be 
lost  to  all  just  feeling,  or  guilty  of  a  weak  and  puerile  affecta 
tion,  if  I  should  fail  to  manifest  the  emotions  which  are  excited 
by  these  testimonials  of  regard,  from  those  among  whom  I  live, 
who  see  me  oftenest,  and  know  me  best.  If  the  approbation  of 
good  men  be  an  object  fit  to  be  pursued,  it  is  fit  to  be  enjoyed;  if 
it  be,  as  it  doubtless  is,  one  of  the  most  stirring  and  invigorat 
ing  motives  which  operate  upon  the  mind,  it  is  also  among  the 
richest  rewards  which  console  and  gratify  the  heart. 

I  confess  myself  particularly  touched  and  affected,  Mr.  Presi 
dent  and  Gentlemen,  by  the  kind  feeling  which  you  manifest 
towards  me  as  your  fellow-citizen,  your  neighbor,  and  your 
friend.  Respect  and  confidence,  in  these  relations  of  life,  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  all  valuable  character ;  they  are  as  essential  to 
solid  and  permanent  reputation  as  to  durable  and  social  happi 
ness.  I  assure  you,  Sir,  with  the  utmost  sincerity,  that  there  is 
nothing  which  could  flow  from  human  approbation  and  ap 
plause,  no  distinction,  however  high  or  alluring,  no  object  of 


164  DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 

ambition,  which  could  possibly  be  brought  within  the  horizon 
of  my  view,  that  would  tempt  me,  in  any  degree,  justly  to  for 
feit  the  attachment  of  my  private  friends,  or  surrender  my  hold, 
as  a  citizen  and  a  neighbor,  on  the  confidence  of  the  commu 
nity  in  which  I  live ;  a  community  to  which  I  owe  so  much, 
in  the  bosom  of  which  I  have  enjoyed  so  much,  and  where  I 
still  hope  to  remain,  in  the  interchange  of  mutual  good  wishes 
and  the  exercise  of  mutual  good  offices,  for  the  residue  of 
life. 

The  commendation  bestowed  by  the  meeting  upon  my  at 
tempts  at  public  service,  I  am  conscious,  is  measured  rather 
by  their  own  kindness,  than  by  any  other  standard.  Of  those 
attempts,  no  one  can  think  more  humbly  than  I  do.  The  affairs 
of  the  general  government,  foreign  and  domestic,  are  vast  and 
various  and  complicated.  They  require  from  those  who  would 
aspire  to  take  a  leading  part  in  them  an  amount,  a  variety, 
and  an  accuracy  of  information,  which,  even  if  the  adequate 
capacity  were  not  wanting,  are  not  easily  attained  by  one  whose 
attention  is  of  necessity  mainly  devoted  to  the  duties  of  an  ac 
tive  and  laborious  profession.  For  this  as  well  as  many  other 
reasons,  I  am  conscious  of  having  discharged  my  public  duties 
in  a  manner  no  way  entitling  them  to  the  degree  of  favor  which 
has  now  been  manifested. 

And  this  manifestation  of  favor  and  regard  is  the  more  espe 
cially  to  be  referred  to  the  candor  and  kindness  of  the  meeting, 
on  this  occasion,  since  it  is  well  known,  that  in  a  recent  instance, 
and  in  regard  to  an  important  measure.  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to 
give  a  vote,  in  respect  to  the  expediency  and  propriety  of  which 
considerable  difference  of  opinion  exists  between  persons  equally 
entitled  to  my  regard  and  confidence.*  The  candid  interpreta 
tion  which  has  been  given  to  that  vote  by  those  who  disap 
proved  it,  and  the  assembling  together  here,  for  the  purposes  of 
this  occasion,  of  those  who  felt  pain,  as  well  as  those  who  felt 
pleasure,  at  the  success  of  the  measure  for  which  the  vote  was 
given,  afford  ample  proof,  how  far  unsuspected  uprightness  of 
intention  and  the  exercise  of  an  independent  judgment  may  be 

*  The  subject  referred  to  is  the  tariff  law  of  1828.  For  a  fuller  statement  of 
the  consi  derations  which  influenced  the  vote  of  Mr.  Webster  on  that  subject,  see 
his  speech,  in  a  subsequent  volume  of  this  collection,  delivered  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  on  the  9th  of  May,  1828. 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL.  165 

respected,  even  by  those  who  differ  from  the  results  to  which 
that,  exercise  of  judgment  has  arrived.  There  is  no  class  of  the 
community  for  whose  interests  I  have  ever  cherished  a  more  sin 
cere  regard,  than  that  on  whose  pursuits  some  parts  of  the  meas 
ure  alluded  to  bear  with  great  severity.  They  are  satisfied,  I 
hope,  that,  in  supporting  a  measure  in  any  degree  injurious  to 
them,  I  must  have  been  governed  by  other  paramount  reasons, 
satisfactory  to  my  own  conscience ;  and  that  the  blow  inflicted 
on  their  interests  was  felt  by  me  almost  as  painfully  and  heav 
ily  as  it  could  be  by  those  on  whom  it  immediately  fell.  I  am 
not  now  about  to  enter  into  the  reason  of  that  vote,  or  to  explain 
the  necessity  under  which  I  found  myself  placed,  by  a  most 
strange  and  unprecedented  manner  of  legislation,  of  taking  the 
evil  of  a  public  measure  for  the  sake  of  its  good  ;  the  good  and 
the  bad  provisions  relating  to  different  subjects,  having  not  the 
slightest  connection  with  each  other,  yet  yoked  together,  and 
kept  together,  for  reasons  and  purposes  which  I  need  not  state, 
as  they  have  been  boldly  avowed,  and  are  now  before  the 
public. 

It  was  my  misfortune,  Sir,  on  that  occasion,  to  differ  from  my 
most  estimable  and  worthy  colleague ;  *  and  yet  probably  our 
difference  was  not  so  broad  as  it  might  seem.  We  both  saw  in 
the  measure  something  to  approve,  and  something  to  disap 
prove.  If  it  could  have  been  left  to  us  to  mould  and  to  frame  it 
according  to  our  opinions  of  what  the  good  of  the  country  re 
quired,  there  would  have  been  no  diversity  of  judgment  between 
us,  as  to  what  should  have  been  retained  and  what  rejected. 
The  only  difference  was,  when  the  measure  had  assumed  its  final 
shape,  whether  the  good  it  contained  so  far  preponderated  over 
its  acknowledged  evil,  as  to  justify  the  reception  and  support  of 
the  whole  together.  On  a  point  of  this  sort,  and  under  circum 
stances  such  as  those  in  which  we  were  placed,  it  is  not  strange 
that  different  minds  should  incline  different  ways.  It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  bear  testimony  to  the  constancy,  the  intelli 
gence,  and  the  conscious  fidelity  with  which  my  colleague  dis 
charged  his  public  duty  in  reference  to  this  subject.  I  am  happy 
also  to  have  the  opportunity  of  saying,  that,  if  the  bill  had  been 
presented  to  me  in  the  form  it  was  when  it  received  a  negative 

*  Hon.  Nathaniel  Silsbee. 


166  DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 

vote  from  the  distinguished  gentleman*  who  represents  this 
Congressional  District,  my  own  opinion  of  it  would  have  entirely 
concurred  with  his,  and  I  should  have  voted  in  the  same  manner. 

The  meeting  will  indulge  me  with  one  further  remark,  before 
parting  from  this  subject.  It  is  only  the  suggestion,  that  in  the 
place  I  occupied  I  was  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  whole 
Commonwealth.  I  was  not  at  liberty  to  look  exclusively  to  the 
interests  of  the  district  in  which  I  live,  and  which  I  have  hereto 
fore  had  the  high  honor  of  representing.  I  was  to  extend  my 
view  from  Barnstable  to  Berkshire ;  to  comprehend  in  it  a  proper 
regard  for  all  interests,  and  a  proper  respect  for  all  opinions. 
Looking  to  the  aggregate  of  all  the  interests  of  the  Common 
wealth,  and  regarding  the  general  current  of  opinion,  so  far  as 
that  was  properly  to  be  respected,  I  saw.  at  least  I  thought  I 
saw,  my  duty  to  lie  in  the  path  which  I  pursued.  The  measure 
is  adopted.  Its  consequences,  for  good  or  evil,  must  be  left  to 
the  results  of  experience.  In  the  mean  time,  I  refer  the  propri 
ety  of  the  vote  which  I  gave,  with  entire  submission,  and  with 
the  utmost  cheerfulness  also,  to  the  judgment  of  the  good  people 
of  the  Commonwealth. 

On  some  other  subjects,  Mr.  President,  I  had  the  good  fortune 
to  act  in  perfect  unison  with  my  colleague,  and  with  every  repre 
sentative  of  the  State.  On  one,  especially,  the  success  of  which, 
I  am  sure,  must  have  gratified  every  one  who  hears  me.  I  could 
not,  Sir,  have  met  this  assembly,  I  could  not  have  raised  my 
voice  in  Faneuil  Hall,  —  you  would  have  awed  me  down  ;  if  you 
had  not,  the  portraits  of  patriots  which  adorn  these  walls  would 
have  frowned  me  into  silence,  —  if  I  had  refused  either  my 
vote  or  my  voice  to  the  cause  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
Revolutionary  army.  That  measure,  mixed  up  of  justice,  and 
charity,  and  mercy,  is  at  last  accomplished.  The  survivors 
of  those  who  fought  our  Revolutionary  battles,  under  an  en 
gagement  to  see  the  contest  through,  are  at  length  provided 
for,  not  sumptuously,  not  extravagantly,  but  in  a  manner  to 
place  them,  in  their  old  age,  beyond  the  reach  of  absolute  want. 
Solace,  also,  has  been  administered  to  then*  feelings,  as  well  as 
to  their  necessities.  They  are  not  left  to  count  their  scars,  or 
to  experience  the  pain  of  wounds,  inflicted  half  a  century  ago, 

*  Hon.  Benjamin  Gorham. 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL.  167 

In  their  country's  service,  without  some  token,  that  they  are 
yet  held  in  grateful  remembrance.  A  gratifying  proof  of  respect 
for  the  services  of  their  youth  and  manhood  quickens  the  pul 
sations  of  patriotism  in  veteran  bosoms ;  and  as  they  may  now 
live  beyond  the  reach  of  absolute  want,  so  they  will  have  the 
pleasure  of  closing  life,  when  that  time  for  closing  it  shall  come 
which  must  come  to  all,  with  the  happy  consciousness  of  mer 
itorious  services,  gratefully  recompensed. 

Another  subject,  now  becoming  exceedingly  interesting,  was, 
in  various  forms,  presented  to  Congress  at  the  last  session  ;  and 
in  regard  to  which,  I  believe,  there  is,  substantially,  a  general 
union  of  opinion  among  the  members  from  this  Commonwealth ; 
I  mean  what  is  commonly  called  Internal  Improvements.  The 
great  and  growing  importance  of  this  subject  may,  I  hope,  jus 
tify  a  few  remarks  relative  to  it  on  the  present  occasion. 

It  was  evident  to  all  persons  of  much  observation,  at  the  close 
of  the  late  war,  that  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  United 
States  had  become  essentially  changed,  in  regard  to  sundry 
great  interests  of  the  country.  Almost  from  the  formation  of 
the  government,  till .  near  the  commencement  of  that  war,  -the 
United  States  had  occupied  a  position  of  singular  and  extraor 
dinary  advantage.  They  had  been  at  peace,  while  the  powers 
of  Europe  had  been  at  war.  The  harvest  of  neutrality  had  been 
to  them  rich  and  ample ;  and  they  had  reaped  it  with  skill  and 
diligence.  Their  agriculture  and  commerce  had  both  sensibly 
felt  the  benefit  arising  from  the  existing  state  of  the  world. 
Bread  was  raised  for  those  whose  hands  were  otherwise  em 
ployed  than  in  the  cultivation  of  the  field,  and  the  seas  were  nav 
igated,  for  account  of  such  as,  being  belligerents,  could  not  safely 
navigate  them  for  themselves.  These  opportunities  for  useful 
employment  were  all  seized  and  enjoyed,  by  the  enterprise  of  the 
country ;  and  a  high  degree  of  prosperity  was  the  natural  result. 

But  with  general  peace  a  new  state  of  things  arose.  The 
European  states  at  once  turned  their  own  attention  to  the  pur 
suits  proper  for  their  new  situation,  and  sought  to  extend  their 
own  agricultural,  manufacturing,  and  commercial  interests.  It 
was  evident,  that  thenceforward,  instead  of  our  enjoying,  the  ad 
vantages  peculiar  to  neutrality  in  times  of  war,  a  general  compe 
tition  would  spring  up,  and  nothing  was  to  be  expected  without 
a  struggle.  Other  nations  would  now  raise  their  own  bread, 


168  DINNER  AT  FANEU1L  HALL. 

and  as  far  as  possible  transport  their  own  commodities ;  and 
the  export  trade  and  the  carrying  trade  of  this  country  were, 
therefore,  certain  to  become  the  subjects  of  new  and  powerful 
competition,  if  not  to  receive  sudden  and  violent  checks.  It 
seemed  reasonable,  therefore,  in  this  state  of  things,  to  turn  our 
thoughts  inwards ;  to  search  out  the  hitherto  unexplored  resour 
ces  of  our  own  country ;  to  find,  if  we  could,  new  diversifica 
tions  of  industry  and  new  subjects  for  the  application  of  labor  at 
home.  It  was  fit  to  consider  how  far  home  productions  could 
properly  be  made  to  furnish  activity  to  home  supply ;  and  since 
the  country  stretched  over  so  many  parallels  of  latitude  and  lon 
gitude,  abounding,  of  course,  in  the  natural  productions  proper 
to  each,  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  inquire  what  means 
existed  of  establishing  free  and  cheap  intercourse  between  those 
distant  parts,  thereby  bringing  the  raw  material,  abounding  in 
one,  under  the  action  of  the  productive  labor  which  was  found 
in  another.  Roads  and  canals,  therefore,  were  seen  to  be  of  the 
first  consequence.  And  then  the  interesting  question  arose,  how 
far  it  was  constitutionally  lawful,  and  how  far  expedient,  for  the 
general  government  to  give  aid  and  succor  to  the  business  of 
making  roads  and  canals,  in  conjunction  with  the  enterprise  of 
individuals  or  of  states.  I  am  among  those  who  have  held  the 
opinion,  that,  if  any  object  of  that  kind  be  of  general  and  national 
importance,  it  is  within  the  scope  of  the  powers  of  the  govern 
ment  ;  though  I  admit  it  to  be  a  power  which  should  be  exer 
cised  with  very  great  care  and  discretion.  Congress  has  power 
to  regulate  commerce,  both  internal  and  external ;  and  whatever 
might  have  been  thought  to  be  the  literal  interpretation  of  these 
terms,  we  know  the  construction  to  have  been,  from  the  very 
first  assembling  of  Congress,  and  by  the  very  men  who  framed 
the  Constitution,  that  the  regulation  of  commerce  comprehended 
such  measures  as  were  necessary  for  its  support,  its  improve 
ment,  its  advancement,  and  justified  the  expenditure  of  money 
for  such  purposes  as  the  construction  of  piers,  beacons,  and 
light-houses,  and  the  clearing  out  of  harbors.  Instances  of 
this  sort,  in  the  application  of  the  general  revenues,  have  been 
frequent,  from  the  commencement  of  the  government.  As  the 
same  power,  precisely,  exists  in  relation  to  internal  as  to  ex 
ternal  trade,  it  was  not  easy  to  see  why  like  expenditures 
might  not  be  justified,  when  made  on  internal  objects.  The 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL.  169 

vast  regions  of  the  West  are  penetrated  by  rivers,  to  which  those 
of  Europe  are  but  as  rills  and  brooks.  But  the  navigation  of 
these  noble  streams,  washing,  as  they  do,  the  margin  of  one  third 
of  the  States  of  the  Union,  is  obstructed  by  obstacles,  capable  of 
being  removed,  and  yet  not  likely  to  be  removed,  but  by  the 
power  of  the  general  government.  Was  this  a  justifiable  object 
of  expenditure  from  the  national  treasury?  Without  hesitation, 
I  have  thought  it  was.  A  vast  chain  of  lakes,  if  it  be  not  more 
proper  to  call  them  a  succession  of  inland  seas,  stretches  into  the 
deep  interior  of  this  northern  part  of  the  continent,  as  if  kindly 
placed  there  by  Providence  to  break  the  continuity  of  the  land, 
and  afford  the  easier  and  reader  intercourse  of  water  convey 
ance.  But  these  vast  lakes  required,  also,  harbors,  and  light 
houses,  and  breakwaters.  And  were  these  lawful  objects  of 
national  legislation  ?  To  me,  certainly,  they  have  appeared  to 
be  such,  as  clearly  as  if  they  were  on  the  Atlantic  border. 

In  most  of  the  new  States  of  the  West,  the  United  States  are 
yet  proprietors  of  vast  bodies  of  land.  Through  some  of  these 
States,  and  sometimes  through  these  same  public  lands,  the  local 
authorities  have  prepared  to  carry  expensive  canals,  for  the  gen 
eral  benefit  of  the  country.  Some  of  these  undertakings  have 
been  attended  with  great  expense,  and  have  subjected  the  States, 
whose  enterprising  spirit  has  begun  and  carried  them  on,  to 
large  debts  and  heavy  taxation.  The  lands  of  the  United  States, 
being  exempted  from  all  taxation,  of  course  bear  no  part  of  this 
burden.  Looking  to  the  United  States,  therefore,  as  a  great 
landed  proprietor,  essentially  benefited  by  these  improvements, 
I  have  felt  no  difficulty  in  voting  for  the  appropriation  of  parts 
of  these  lands,  as  a  reasonable  contribution  by  the  United  States 
to  these  general  objects. 

Most  of  the  subjects  to  which  I  have  referred  are  much  less 
local,  in  their  influence  and  importance,  than  they  might  seem. 
The  breakwater  in  the  Delaware,  useful  to  Philadelphia,  is  use 
ful  also  to  all  the  ship-owners  in  the  United  States,  and  indeed 
to  all  interested  in  commerce,  especially  that  great  branch,  the 
coastwise  commerce.  If  the  mouths  of  the  Southern  rivers  be 
deepened  and  improved,  the  neighboring  cities  are  benefited, 
but  so  also  are  the  ships  which  visit  them  ;  and  if  the  Mississippi 
and  Ohio  be  rendered  more  safe  for  navigation,  the  great  mar 
kets  of  consumption  along  their  shores  are  the  more  readily  and 

VOL.  i.  15 


170  DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 

cheaply  approached  by  the  products  of  the  factories  and  fish 
eries  of  New  England. 

It  is  my  opinion,  Mr.  President,  that  the  present  government 
of  the  United  States  cannot  be  maintained  but  by  administer 
ing  it  on  principles  as  wide  and  broad  as  the  country  over  which 
it  extends.  I  mean,  of  course,  no  extension  of  the  powers  which 
it  confers ;  but  I  speak  of  the  spirit  with  which  those  powers 
should  be  exercised.  If  there  be  any  doubts,  whether  so  many 
republics,  covering  so  vast  a  territory,  can  be  long  held  together 
nnder  this  Constitution,  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  judgment  of 
the  impossibility  of  so  holding  them  together  by  any  narrow, 
local,  or  selfish  system  of  legislation.  To  render  the  Constitu 
tion  perpetual  (which  God  grant  it  may  be),  it  is  necessary  that 
its  benefits  should  be  practically  felt  by  ah1  parts  of  the  country, 
and  all  interests  in  the  country.  The  East  and  the  West,  the 
North  and  the  South,  must  all  see  their  own  welfare  protected 
and  advanced  by  it.  While  the  eastern  frontier  is  defended  by 
fortifications,  its  harbors  improved,  and  commerce  protected  by 
a  naval  force,  it  is  right  and  just  that  the  region  beyond  the 
Alleghanies  should  receive  fair  consideration  and  equal  attention, 
in  any  object  of  public  improvement,  interesting  to  itself,  and 
within  the  proper  power  of  the  government.  These,  Sir,  are  in 
brief  the  general  views  by  which  I  have  been  governed  on  ques 
tions  of  this  kind ;  and  I  trust  they  are  such  as  this  meeting 
does  not  disapprove. 

I  would  not  trespass  further  upon  your  attention,  if  I  did  not 
feel  it  my  duty  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  condition  of  public 
affairs  under  another  aspect.  We  are  on  the  eve  of  a  new  elec 
tion  of  President ;  and  the  manner  in  which  the  existing  admin 
istration  is  attacked  might  lead  a  stranger  to  suppose  that  the 
chief  magistrate  had  committed  some  flagrant  offence  against 
the  country,  had  threatened  to  overturn  its  liberties,  or  establish 
a  military  usurpation.  On  a  former  occasion  I  have  in  this 
place  expressed  my  opinion  of  the  principle  upon  which  the 
opposition  to  the  administration  is  founded,  without  any  refer 
ence  whatever  to  the  person  who  stands  as  its  apparent  head, 
and  who  is  intended  by  it  to  be  placed  in  the  chief  executive 
chair.  I  think  that  principle  exceedingly  dangerous  and  alarm 
ing,  inasmuch  as  it  does  not  profess  to  found  opposition  to  the 
government  on  the  measures  of  government,  but  to  rest  it  on 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL.  171 

other  causes,  and  those  mostly  personal.  There  is  a  combina 
tion  or  association  of  persons  holding  the  most  opposite  opin 
ions,  both  on  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  government  and 
on  the  leading  measures  of  public  concern,  and  uniting  in  little, 
or  in  nothing,  except  the  will  to  dislodge  power  from  the  hands 
in  which  the  country  has  placed  it.  There  has  been  no  leading 
measure  of  the  government,  with  perhaps  a  single  exception, 
which  has  not  been  strenuously  maintained  by  many,  or  by 
some,  of  those  who  all  cooperate,  nevertheless,  in  pursuit  of  the 
object  which  I  have  mentioned.  This  is  but  one  of  many  proofs 
that  the  opposition  does  not  rest  on  the  principle  of  disapproba 
tion  of  the  measures  of  government.  Many  other  evidences  of 
the  same  truth  might  be  adduced  easily.  A  remarkable  one  is, 
that,  while  one  ground  of  objection  to  the  administration  is 
urged  in  one  place,  its  precise  opposite  is  pressed  in  another. 
Pennsylvania  and  South  Carolina,  for  example,  are  not  treated 
with  the  same  reasons  for  a  change  of  administration ;  but  with 
flatly  contradictory  reasons.  In  one,  the  administration  is  rep 
resented  as  bent  on  a  particular  system  oppressive  to  that  State, 
and  which  must  ultimately  ruin  it ;  and  for  that  reason  there 
ought  to  be  a  change.  In  the  other,  that  system,  instead  of 
being  ruinous,  is  represented  as  salutary,  as  necessary,  as  indis 
pensable.  But  the  administration  is  declared  to  be  but  half  in 
earnest  in  supporting  it,  and  for  that  reason  there  ought  to  be  a 
change. 

Reflecting  men  have  always  supposed,  that,  if  there  were  a 
weak  point  in  the  Federal  Constitution,  it  was  in  the  provision 
for  the  exercise  of  the  executive  power.  And  this,  perhaps, 
may  be  considered  as  rendered  more  delicate  and  difficult,  by 
the  great  augmentation  of  the  number  of  the  States.  We  must 
expect  that  there  will  often  be,  as  there  was  on  the  last  election, 
several  candidates  for  the  Presidency.  All  but  one,  of  course, 
must  be  disappointed ;  and  if  the  friends  of  all  such,  however 
otherwise  divided,  are  immediately  to  unite,  and  to  make  com 
mon  cause  against  him  who  is  elected,  little  is  ever  to  be  expect 
ed  but  embarrassment  and  confusion.  The  love  of  office  will 
ere  long  triumph  over  the  love  of  country,  and  party  and  faction 
usurp  the  place  of  wisdom  and  patriotism.  If  the  contest  for 
the  executive  power  is  thus  to  be  renewed  every  four  years ;  if 
it  is  to  be  conducted  as  the  present  has  been  conducted ;  and 


172  DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 

if  every  election  is  to  be  immediately  followed,  as  the  last  was 
followed,  by  a  prompt  union  of  all  whose  friends  are  not  chosen 
against  him  who  is,  there  is,  in  my  judgment,  danger,  much 
danger,  that  this  great  experiment  of  confederated  government 
may  fail,  and  that  even  those  of  us  who  are  not  among  the 
youngest  may  behold  its  catastrophe. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  the  notice  of  any  gentleman  present, 
that,  in  the  course  of  the  controversy,  pains  have  been  taken  to 
affect  the  character  and  the  success  of  the  present  chief  magis 
trate,  by  exciting  odium  towards  that  part  of  the  country  in 
which  he  was  born  and  to  which  he  belongs.  Sneers,  con 
tumely,  reproach,  every  thing  that  gentlemen  could  say,  and 
many  things  which  gentlemen  could  not  say,  have  been  uttered 
against  New  England.  I  am  sure,  Sir,  every  true  son  of  New 
England  must  receive  such  things,  when  they  come  from  sources 
which  ought  to  be  considered  respectable,  with  a  feeling  of  just 
indignation;  and  when  proceeding  from  elsewhere,  with  con 
tempt.  If  there  be  one  among  ourselves  who  can  be  induced, 
by  any  motives,  to  join  in  this  cry  against  New  England,  he 
disgraces  the  New  England  mother  who  bore  him,  the  New 
England  father  who  bred  and  nurtured  him,  and  the  New  Eng 
land  atmosphere  which  first  supplied  respiration  to  those  lungs, 
now  so  unworthily  employed  in  uttering  calumnies  against  his 
country.  Persons  not  known  till  yesterday,  and  having  little 
chance  of  being  remembered  beyond  to-morrow,  have  affected 
to  draw  a  distinction  between  the  patriot  States  and  the  States 
of  New  England ;  assigning  the  last  to  the  present  President, 
and  the  rest  to  his  rival.  I  do  not  wonder,  Sir,  at  the  indigna 
tion  and  scorn  which  I  perceive  the  recital  of  this  injustice  pro 
duces  here.  Nothing  else  was  to  be  expected.  Faneuil  Hall  is 
not  a  place  where  one  is  expected  to  hear  with  indifference  that 
New  England  is  not  to  be  counted  among  the  patriot  States. 
The  patriot  States  !  What  State  was  it,  Sir,  that  was  patriotic 
when  patriotism  cost  something  ?  Where  but  in  New  England 
did  the  great  drama  of  the  Revolution  open  ?  Where,  but  on 
the  soil  of  Massachusetts,  was  the  first  blood  poured  out  in  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  independence  ?  Where,  sooner  than  here, 
where  earlier  than  within  the  walls  which  now  surround  us,  was 
patriotism  found,  when  to  be  patriotic  was  to  endanger  houses 
and  homes,  and  wives  and  children,  and  to  be  ready  also  to  pay 


DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL.  173 

for  the  reputation  of  patriotism  by  the  sacrifice  of  blood  and  of 
life? 

Not  farther  to  refer  to  her  Revolutionary  merits,  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  New  England  did  her  part,  and  more  than  her  part,  in 
the  establishment  of  the  present  government,  and  in  giving 
effect  to  the  measures  and  the  policy  of  the  first  President. 
Where,  Sir,  did  the  measures  of  Washington  find  the  most 
active  friends  and  the  firmest  support  ?  Where  are  the  general 
principles  of  his  policy  most  widely  spread,  and  most  deeply 
seated  ?  If,  in  subsequent  periods,  different  opinions  have  been 
held  by  different  portions  of  her  people,  New  England  has, 
nevertheless,  been  always  obedient  to  the  laws,  even  when  she 
most  severely  felt  their  pressure,  and  most  conscientiously  doubt 
ed  or  disbelieved  their  propriety.  Every  great  and  permanent 
institution  of  the  country,  intended  for  defence  or  for  improve 
ment,  has  met  her  support.  And  if  we  look  to  recent  measures, 
on  subjects  highly  interesting  to  the  community,  and  especially 
some  portions  of  it,  we  see  proofs  of  the  same  steady  and  liberal 
policy.  It  may  be  said  with  entire  truth,  and  it  ought  to  be 
^aid,  and  ought  to  be  known,  that  no  one  measure  for  internal 
improvement  has  been  carried  through  Congress,  or  could  have 
been  carried,  but  by  the  aid  of  New  England  votes.  It  is  for 
those  most  deeply  interested  in  subjects  of  that  sort  to  consider 
in  season,  how  far  the  continuance  of  the  same  aid  is  necessary 
for  the  further  prosecution  of  the  same  objects.  From  the  inter 
ference  of  the  general  government  in  making  roads  and  canals, 
New  England  has  as  little  to  hope  or  expect  as  any  part  of  the 
country.  She  has  hitherto  supported  them  upon  principle,  and 
from  a  sincere  disposition  to  extend  the  blessings  and  the  benefi 
cence  of  the  government.  And,  Sir,  I  confidently  believe  that 
those  most  concerned  in  the  success  of  these  measures  feel 
towards  her  respect  and  friendship.  They  feel  that  she  has 
acted  fairly  and  liberally,  wholly  uninfluenced  by  selfish  or  sin 
ister  motives.  Those,  therefore,  who  have  seen,  or  thought  they 
saw,  an  object  to  be  attained  by  exciting  dislike  and  odium 
towards  New  England,  are  not  likely  to  find  quite  so  favorable 
an  audience  as  they  have  expected.  It  will  not  go  for  quite  so 
much  as  wished,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  President,  that  he 
is  a  native  of  Massachusetts.  Nothing  is  wanting  but  that  we 
ourselves  should  entertain  a  proper  feeling  on  this  subject,  and 
15* 


174  DINNER  AT  FANEUIL  HALL. 

act  with  a  just  regard  to  our  own  rights  and  our  own  duties. 
If  I  could  collect  around  me  the  whole  population  of  New  Eng 
land,  or  if  I  could  cause  my  voice  to  be  heard  over  all  her  green 
hills,  or  along  every  one  of  her  pleasant  streams,  in  the  exercise 
of  true  filial  affection,  I  would  say  to  her,  in  the  language  of 
the  great  master  of  the  maxims  of  life  and  conduct, 

"  This  above  all,  —  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

Mr.  President,  —  I  have  delayed  you  too  long.  I  beg  to  re 
peat  my  thanks  for  the  kindness  which  has  been  manifested 
towards  me  by  my  fellow-citizens,  and  to  conclude  by  recipro 
cating  their  good  wishes :  — 

The  City  of  Boston.  Prosperity  to  all  her  interests,  and  hap 
piness  to  all  her  citizens. 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'   INSTITUTION/ 


I  APPEAR  before  you,  Gentlemen,  for  the  performance  of  a  duty 
which  is  in  so  great  a  degree  foreign  from  my  habitual  studies 
and  pursuits,  that  it  may  be  presumptuous  in  me  to  hope  for  a 
creditable  execution  of  the  task.  But  I  have  not  allowed  con 
siderations  of  this  kind  to  weigh  against  a  strong  and  ardent 
desire  to  signify  my  approbation  of  the  objects,  and  my  convic 
tion  of  the  utility,  of  this  institution ;  and  to  manifest  my  prompt 
attention  to  whatever  others  may  suppose  to  be  in  my  power  to 
promote  its  respectability  and  to  further  its  designs. 

The  constitution  of  the  association  declares  its  precise  ob 
ject  to  be,  "  Mutual  Instruction  in  the  Sciences,  as  connected 
with  the  Mechanic  Arts." 

The  distinct  purpose  is  to  connect  science  more  and  more 
with  art;  to  teach  the  established,  and  invent  new,  modes  of 
combining  skill  with  strength ;  to  bring  the  power  of  the  human 
understanding  in  aid  of  the  physical  powers  of  the  human 
frame ;  to  facilitate  the  cooperation  of  the  mind  with  the  hand ; 
to  promote  convenience,  lighten  labor,  and  mitigate  toil,  by 
stretching  the  dominion  of  mind  farther  and  farther  over  the 
elements  of  nature,  and  by  making  those  elements  themselves 
submit  to  human  rule,  follow  human  bidding,  and  work  together 
for  human  happiness. 

The  visible  and  tangible  creation  into  which  we  are  intro 
duced  at  our  birth,  is  not,  in  all  its  parts,  fixed  and  stationary. 
Motion  or  change  of  place,  regular  or  occasional,  belongs  to  all 
or  most  of  the  things  which  are  around  us.  Animal  life  every- 

*  Introductory  Lecture,  read  at  the  Opening  of  the  Course  for  the  Season,  on 
the  12th  of  November,  1828. 


178  THE  BOSTON   MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

where  moves ;  the  earth  itself  has  its  motion,  and  its  complexi 
ties  of  motion ;  the  ocean  heaves  and  subsides ;  rivers  run,  lin 
gering  or  rushing,  to  the  sea;  and  the  air  which  we  breathe 
moves  and  acts  with  mighty  power.  Motion,  thus  pertaining 
to  the  physical  objects  which  surround  us,  is  the  exhaustless- 
fountain  whence  philosophy  draws  the  means  by  which,  in  va 
rious  degrees  and  endless  forms,  natural  agencies  and  the  ten 
dencies  of  inert  matter  are  brought  to  the  succor  and  assistance 
of  human  strength.  It  is  the  object  of  mechanical  contrivance 
to  modify  motion,  to  produce  it  in  new  forms,  to  direct  it  to 
new  purposes,  to  multiply  its  uses,  by  its  means  to  do  better 
that  which  human  strength  could  do  without  its  aid,  and  to 
perform  that,  also,  which  such  strength,  unassisted  by  art,  could 
not  perform. 

Motion  itself  is  but  the  result  of  force;  or,  in  other  words, 
force  is  defined  to  be  whatever  tends  to  produce  motion.  The 
operation  of  forces,  therefore,  on  bodies,  is  the  broad  field  which 
is  open  for  that  philosophical  examination,  the  results  of  which 
it  is  the  business  of  mechanical  contrivance  to  apply.  The 
leading  forces  or  sources  of  motion  are,  as  is  well  known,  the 
power  of  animals,  gravity,  heat,  the  winds,  and  water.  There 
are  various  others  of  less  power,  or  of  more  difficult  application. 
Mechanical  philosophy,  therefore,  may  be  said  to  be  that  science 
which  instructs  us  in  the  knowledge  of  natural  moving  powers, 
animate  or  inanimate ;  in  the  manner  of  modifying  those  pow 
ers,  and  of  increasing  the  intensity  of  some  of  them  by  artificial 
means,  such  as  heat  and  electricity;  and  in  applying  the  varieties 
of  force  and  motion,  thus  derived  from  natural  agencies,  to  the 
arts  of  life.  This  is  the  object  of  mechanical  philosophy.  None 
can  doubt,  certainly,  the  high  importance  of  this  sort  of  knowl 
edge,  or  fail  to  see  how  suitable  it  is  to  the  elevated  rank  and  the 
dignity  of  reasoning  beings.  Man's  grand  distinction  is  his  intel 
lect,  his  mental  capacity.  It  is  this  which  renders  him  highly 
and  peculiarly  responsible  to  his  Creator.  It  is  on  account  of 
this,  that  the  rule  over  other  animals  is  established  in  his  hands ; 
and  it  is  this,  mainly,  which  enables  him  to  exercise  dominion 
over  the  powers  of  nature,  and  to  subdue  them  to  himself. 

But  it  is  true,  also,  that  his  own  animal  organization  gives 
him  superiority,  and  is  among  the  most  wonderful  of  the  works 
of  God  on  earth.  It  contributes  to  cause,  as  well  as  prove,  his 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'   INSTITUTION.  179 

elevated  rank  in  creation.  His  port  is  erect,  his  face  toward 
heaven,  and  he  is  furnished  with  limbs  which  are  not  absolutely 
necessary  to  his  support  or  locomotion,  and  which  are  at  once 
powerful,  flexible,  capable  of  innumerable  modes  and  varieties 
of  action,  and  terminated  by  an  instrument  of  wonderful,  heav 
enly  workmanship,  —  the  human  hand.  This  marvellous  phys 
ical  conformation  gives  man  the  power  of  acting  with  great 
effect  upon  external  objects,  in  pursuance  of  the  suggestions  of 
his  understanding,  and  of  applying  the  results  of  his  reasoning 
power  to  his  own  purposes.  Without  this  particular  formation, 
he  would  not  be  man,  with  whatever  sagacity  he  might  have 
been  endowed.  No  bounteous  grant  of  intellect,  were  it  the 
pleasure  of  Heaven  to  make  such  grant,  could  raise  any  of  the 
brute  creation  to  an  equality  with  the  human  race.  "Were  it 
bestowed  on  the  leviathan,  he  must  remain,  nevertheless,  in  the 
element  where  alone  he  could  maintain  his  physical  existence. 
He  would  still  be  but  the  inelegant,  misshapen  inhabitant  of  the 
ocean,  "  wallowing  unwieldy,  enormous  in  his  gait."  Were  the 
elephant  made  to  possess  it,  it  would  but  teach  him  the  defor 
mity  of  his  own  structure,  the  unsightliness  of  his  frame,  though 
"  the  hugest  of  things,"  his  disability  to  act  on  external  matter, 
and  the  degrading  nature  of  his  own  physical  wants,  which  lead 
him  to  the  deserts,  and  give  him  for  his  favorite  home  the  torrid 
plains  of  the  tropics.  It  was  placing  the  king  of  Babylon  suf 
ficiently  out  of  the  rank  of  human  beings,  though  he  carried  all 
his  reasoning  faculties  with  him,  when  he  was  sent  away  to  eat 
grass  like  an  ox.  And  this  may  properly  suggest  to  our  consid 
eration,  what  is  undeniably  true,  that  there  is  hardly  a  greater 
blessing  conferred  on  man  than  his  natural  wants.  If  he  had 
wanted  no  more  than  the  beasts,  who  can  say  how  much  more 
than  they  he  would  have  attained  ?  Does  he  associate,  does  he 
cultivate,  does  he  build,  does  he  navigate?  The  original  im 
pulse  to  all  these  lies  in  his  wants.  It  proceeds  from  the  neces 
sities  of  his  condition,  and  from  the  efforts  of  unsatisfied  desire. 
Every  want,  not  of  a  low  kind,  physical  as  well  as  moral,  which 
the  human  breast  feels,  and  which  brutes  do  not  feel  and  cannot 
feel,  raises  man  by  so  much  in  the  scale  of  existence,  and  is  a 
clear  proof  and  a  direct  instance  of  the  favor  of  God  towards 
his  so  much  favored  human  offspring.  If  man  had  been  so 
made  as  to  desire  nothing,  he  would  have  wanted  almost  everv 
thing  worth  possessing. 


180  THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

But  doubtless  the  reasoning  faculty,  the  mind,  is  the  leading 
and  characteristic  attribute  of  the  human  race.  By  the  exercise 
of  this,  man  arrives  at  the  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  natu 
ral  bodies.  This  is  science,  properly  and  emphatically  so  called. 
It  is  the  science  of  pure  mathematics ;  and  in  the  high  branches 
of  this  science  lies  the  true  sublime  of  human  acquisition.  If 
any  attainment  deserve  that  epithet,  it  is  the  knowledge,  which, 
from  the  mensuration  of  the  minutest  dust  of  the  balance,  pro 
ceeds  on  the  rising  scale  of  material  bodies,  everywhere  weigh 
ing,  everywhere  measuring,  everywhere  detecting  and  explaining 
the  laws  of  force  and  motion,  penetrating  into  the  secret  princi 
ples  which  hold  the  universe  of  God  together,  and  balancing 
world  against  world,  and  system  against  system.  When  we 
seek  to  accompany  those  who  pursue  studies  at  once  so  high, 
so  vast,  and  so  exact ;  when  we  arrive  at  the  discoveries  of  New 
ton,  which  pour  in  day  on  the  works  of  God,  as  if  a  second  fiat 
for  light  had  gone  forth  from  his  own  mouth ;  when,  further,  we 
attempt  to  follow  those  who  set  out  where  Newton  paused, 
making  his  goal  their  starting-place,  and,  proceeding  with  dem 
onstration  upon  demonstration,  and  discovery  upon  discovery, 
bring  new  worlds  and  new  systems  of  worlds  within  the  limits 
of  the  known  universe,  failing  to  learn  all  only  because  all  is 
infinite ;  however  we  say  of  man,  in  admiration  of  his  physical 
structure,  that  "  in  form  and  moving  he  is  express  and  admira 
ble,"  it  is  here,  and  here  without  irreverence,  we  may  exclaim, 
"  In  apprehension  how  like  a  god ! "  The  study  of  the  pure 
mathematics  will  of  course  not  be  extensively  pursued  in  an 
institution,  which,  like  this,  has  a  direct  practical  tendency  and 
aim.  But  it  is  still  to  be  remembered,  that  pure  mathematics 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  mechanical  philosophy,  and  that  it  is 
ignorance  only  which  can  speak  or  think  of  that  sublime  science 
as  useless  research  or  barren  speculation. 

It  has  already  been  said,  that  the  general  and  well-known 
agents  usually  regarded  as  the  principal  sources  of  mechanical 
powers  are  gravity,  acting  on  solid  bodies,  the  fall  of  water, 
which  is  but  gravity  acting  on  fluids,  air,  heat,  and  animal 
strength.  For  the  useful  direction  and  application  of  the  first 
four  of  these,  that  is,  of  all  of  them  which  belong  to  inanimate 
nature,  some  intermediate  apparatus  or  contrivance  becomes 
necessary ;  and  this  apparatus,  whatever  its  form,  is  a  machine. 
A  machine  is  an  invention  for  the  application  of  motion,  either 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION.  181 

by  changing  the  direction  of  the  moving  power,  or  by  rendering 
a  body  in  motion  capable  of  communicating  a  motion  greater 
or  less  than  its  own  to  other  bodies,  or  by  enabling  it  to  over 
come  a  power  of  greater  intensity  or  force  than  its  own.  And 
it  is  usually  said  that  every  machine,  however  apparently  com 
plex,  is  capable  of  being  resolved  into  some  one  or  more  of  those 
single  machines,  of  which,  according  to  one  mode  of  description, 
there  are  six,  and  according  to  another,  three,  called  the  mechan 
ical  powers.  But  because  machinery,  or  all  mechanical  contri 
vance,  is  thus  capable  of  resolution  into  a  few  elementary  forms, 
it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  science,  or  art,  or  both  together, 
though  pressed  with  the  utmost  force  of  human  genius,  and 
cultivated  by  the  last  degree  of  human  assiduity,  will  ever  ex 
haust  the  combinations  into  which  these  elementary  forms  may 
be  thrown.  An  indefinite,  though  not  an  infinite,  reach  of  inven 
tion  may  be  expected ;  but  indefinite,  also,  if  not  infinite,  are  the 
possible  combinations  of  elementary  principles.  The  field,  then, 
is  vast  and  unbounded.  We  know  not  to  what  yet  unthought 
of  heights  the  power  of  man  over  the  agencies  of  nature  may  be 
carried.  We  only  know  that  the  last  half-century  has  witnessed 
an  amazingly  accelerated  progress  in  useful  discoveries,  and  that, 
at  the  present  moment,  science  and  art  are  acting  together  with 
a  new  companionship,  and  with  the  most  happy  and  striking 
results.  The  history  of  mechanical  philosophy  is,  of  itself,  a 
v^ery  interesting  subject,  and  will  doubtless  be  treated  in  this 
place  fully  and  methodically,  by  stated  lecturers. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  man,  which,  like  that  of  his  do 
mestic  habits  and  daily  occupations,  has  been  too  seldom  the 
subject  of  research ;  having  been  thrust  aside  by  the  more  daz 
zling  topics  of  war  and  political  revolutions.  We  are  not  often 
conducted  by  historians  within  the  houses  or  huts  of  our  ances 
tors,  as  they  were  centuries  ago,  and  made  acquainted  with 
their  domestic  utensils  and  domestic  arrangements.  We  see 
too  little  both  of  the  conveniences  and  inconveniences  of  their 
daily  and  ordinary  life.  There  are,  indeed,  rich  materials  for 
interesting  details  on  these  particulars  to  be  collected  from  the 
labors  of  Goguet  and  Beckmann,  Henry  and  Turner ;  but  still, 
a  thorough  and  well- written  history  of  those  inventions  in  the 
mechanic  arts  which  are  now  commonly  known  is  a  desidera 
tum  in  literature. 

VOL.  i.  16 


182  THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

Human  sagacity,  stimulated  by  human  wants,  seizes  first  on 
the  nearest  natural  assistant.  The  power  of  his  own  arm  is  an 
early  lesson  among  the  studies  of  primitive  man.  This  is  ani 
mal  strength ;  and  from  this  he  rises  to  the  conception  of  em 
ploying,  for  his  own  use,  the  strength  of  other  animals.  A 
stone,  impelled  by  the  power  of  his  arm,  he  finds  will  produce  a 
greater  effect  than  the  arm  itself;  this  is  a  species  of  mechani 
cal  power.  The  effect  results  from  a  combination  of  the  mov 
ing  force  with  the  gravity  of  a  heavy  body.  The  limb  of  a  tree 
is  a  rude,  but  powerful  instrument ;  it  is  a  lever.  And  the  me 
chanical  powers  being  all  discovered,  like  other  natural  qualities, 
by  induction  (I  use  the  word  as  Bacon  used  it)  or  experience, 
and  not  by  any  reasoning  a  priori,  their  progress  has  kept  pace 
with  the  general  civilization  and  education  of  nations.  The  his 
tory  of  mechanical  philosophy,  while  it  strongly  illustrates  in  its 
general  results  the  force  of  the  human  mind,  exhibits  in  its  de 
tails  most  interesting  pictures  of  ingenuity  struggling  with  the 
conception  of  new  combinations,  and  of  deep,  intense,  and  pow 
erful  thought,  stretched  to  its  utmost  to  find  out  or  deduce  the 
general  principle  from  the  indications  of  particular  facts.  We 
are  now  so  far  advanced  beyond  the  age  when  the  principal 
leading,  important  mathematical  discoveries  were  made,  and 
they  have  become  so  much  matter  of  'common  knowledge,  that 
it  is  not  easy  to  feel  their  importance,  or  be  justly  sensible  what 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  science  each  constituted.  The  half- 
frantic  exultation  of  Archimedes,  when  he  had  solved  the  prob 
lem  respecting  the  crown  of  Hiero,  was  on  an  occasion  and  for 
a  cause  certainly  well  allowing  very  high  joy.  And  so  also  was 
the  duplication  of  the  cube. 

The  altar  of  Apollo,  at  Athens,  was  a  square  block,  or  cube, 
and  to  double  it,  required  the  duplication  of  the  cube.  This 
was  a  process  involving  an  unascertained  mathematical  princi 
ple.  It  was  quite  natural,  therefore,  that  it  should  be  a  tradi 
tional  story,  that,  by  way  of  atoning  for  some  affront  to  that 
god,  the  oracle  commanded  the  Athenians  to  double  his  altar ; 
an  injunction,  we  know,  which  occupied  the  keen  sagacity  of 
the  Greek  geometricians  for  more  than  half  a  century,  before 
they  were  able  to  obey  it.  It  is  to  the  great  honor,  however,  of 
this  inimitable  people,  the  Greeks,  a  people  whose  genius  seems 
to  have  been  equally  fitted  for  the  investigations  of  science  and 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION.  183 

the  works  of  imagination,  that  the  immortal  Euclid,  centuries 
before  our  era,  composed  his  Elements  of  Geometry ;  a  work 
which,  for  two  thousand  years,  has  been,  and  still  continues  to 
be,  a  text-book  for  instruction  in  that  science. 

A  history  of  mechanical  philosophy,  however,  would  not  be 
gin  with  Greece.  There  is  a  wonder  beyond  Greece.  Higher  up 
in  the  annals  of  mankind,  nearer,  far  nearer,  to  the  origin  of  our 
race,  out  of  all  reach  of  letters,  beyond  the  sources  of  tradition, 
beyond  all  history,  except  what  remains  in  the  monuments  of 
her  own  art,  stands  Egypt,  the  mother  of  nations !  Egypt f 
Thebes !  the  Labyrinth !  the  Pyramids !  Who  shall  explain 
the  mysteries  which  these  names  suggest  ?  The  Pyramids ! 
Who  can  inform  us  whether  it  was  by  mere  numbers,  and  pa 
tience,  and  labor,  aided  perhaps  by  the  simple  lever,  or  if  not, 
by  what  forgotten  combination  of  powers,  by  what  now  un 
known  machines,  mass  was  thus  aggregated  to  mass,  and  quarry 
piled  on  quarry,  till  solid  granite  seemed  to  cover  the  earth  and 
reach  the  skies  ? 

The  ancients  discovered  many  things,  but  they  left  many 
things  also  to  be  discovered;  and  this,  as  a  general  truth,  is 
what  our  posterity  a  thousand  years  hence  will  be  able  to  say, 
doubtless,  when  we  and  our  generation  shall  be  recorded  also 
among  the  ancients.  For,  indeed,  God  seems  to  have  proposed 
his  material  universe  as  a  standing,  perpetual  study  to  his  intel 
ligent  creatures ;  where,  ever  learning,  they  can  yet  never  learn 
all ;  and  if  that  material  universe  shall  last  till  man  shall  have 
discovered  all  that  is  now  unknown,  but  which  by  the  progres 
sive  improvement  of  his  faculties  he  is  capable  of  knowing,  it 
will  remain  through  a  duration  beyond  human  measurement, 
and  beyond  human  comprehension. 

The  ancients  knew  nothing  of  our  present  system  of  arith 
metical  notation ;  nothing  of  algebra,  and,  of  course,  nothing  of 
the  important  application  of  algebra  to  geometry.  They  had 
not  learned  the  use  of  logarithms,  and  were  ignorant  of  fluxions. 
They  had  not  attained  to  any  just  mode  for  the  mensuration  of 
the  earth ;  a  matter  of  great  moment  to  astronomy,  navigation, 
and  other  branches  of  useful  knowledge.  It  is  scarcely  neces 
sary  to  add,  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the  great  results  which 
have  followed  the  development  of  the  principle  of  gravitation. 

In  the  useful  and  practical  arts,  many  inventions  and  contri- 


184  THE   BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

vances,  to  the  production  of  which  the  degree  of  knowledge  pos 
sessed  by  the  ancients  would  appear  to  us  to  have  been  ade 
quate,  and  which  seem  quite  obvious,  are  yet  of  late  origin. 
The  application  of  water,  for  example,  to  turn  a  mill,  is  a  thing 
not  known  to  have  been  accomplished  at  all  in  Greece,  and  is 
not  supposed  to  have  been  attempted  at  Rome  till  in  or  near 
the  age  of  Augustus.  The  production  of  the  same  effect  by 
wind  is  a  still  later  invention.  It  dates  only  in  the  seventh  cen 
tury  of  our  era.  The  propulsion  of  the  saw  by  any  other  power 
than  that  of  the  arm  is  treated  as  a  novelty  in  England,  so  late 
as  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Bishop  of  Ely, 
at  that  time  ambassador  from  the  queen  of  England  to  the 
Pope,  says,  "  he  saw,  at  Lyons,  a  sawmill  driven  with  an  upright 
wheel,  and  the  water  that  maketh  it  go  is  gathered  whole  into  a 
narrow  trough,  which  delivereth  the  same  water  to  the  wheels. 
This  wheel  hath  a  piece  of  timber  put  to  the  axletree  end,  like 
the  handle  of  a  broch  (a  hand-organ),  and  fastened  to  the  end  of 
the  saw,  which  being  turned  with  the  force  of  water,  hoisteth  up 
and  down  the  saw,  that  it  continually  eateth  in,  and  the  handle 
of  the  same  is  kept  in  a  rigall  of  wood,  from  swerving.  Also  the 
timber  lieth,  as  it  were,  upon  a  ladder,  which  is  brought  by  little 
and  little  to  the  saw  with  another  vice."  *  From  this  description 
of  the  primitive  power-saw,  it  would  seem  that  it  was  probably 
fast  only  at  one  end,  and  that  the  broch  and  rigall  performed  the 
part  of  the  arm  in  the  common  use  of  the  handsaw. 

It  must  always  have  been  a  very  considerable  object  for  men 
to  possess  or  obtain  the  power  of  raising  water  otherwise  than 
by  mere  manual  labor.  Yet  nothing  like  the  common  suction- 
pump  has  been  found  among  rude  nations.  It  has  arrived  at 
its  present  state  only  by  slow  and  cautious  steps  of  improve 
ment;  and,  indeed,  in  that  present  state,  however  obvious  and 
unattractive,  it  is  something  of  an  abstruse  and  refined  inven 
tion.  It  was  unknown  in  China,  until  Europeans  visited  the 
"  Celestial  Empire " ;  and  is  still  unknown  in  other  parts  of 
Asia,  beyond  the  pale  of  European  settlements  or  the  reach  of 
European  communication.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  are  sup 
posed  to  have  been  ignorant  of  it,  in  the  early  times  of  their 
history ;  and  it  is  usually  said  to  have  come  from  Alexandria, 

*  See  Beckmann's  Inventions,  Vol.  I.  p.  373,  where  the  passage  is  quoted 
from  the  Miscellaneous  State  Papers. 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION.  185 

where  physical  science  was  much  cultivated  by  the  Greek  phi 
losophers,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Ptolemies. 

These  few  and  scattered  historical  notices,  Gentlemen,  of  im 
portant  inventions,  have  been  introduced  only  for  the  purpose 
of  suggesting  that  there  is  much  which  is  both  curious  and  in 
structive  in  the  history  of  mechanics ;  and  that  many  things 
which  to  us,  in  our  state  of  knowledge,  seem  so  obvious  as  that 
we  should  think  they  would  at  once  force  themselves  on  men's 
adoption,  have,  nevertheless,  been  accomplished  slowly  and  by 
painful  efforts. 

But  if  the  history  of  the  progress  of  the  mechanical  arts  be 
interesting,  still  more  so,  doubtless,  would  be  the  exhibition  of 
their  present  state,  and  a  full  display  of  the  extent  to  which 
they  are  now  carried.  This  field  is  much  too  wide  to  be  en 
tered  on  this  occasion.  The  briefest  outline  even  would  exceed 
its  limits;  and  the  whole  subject  will  regularly  fall  to  hands 
much  more  able  to  sustain  it.  The  slightest  glance,  however, 
must  convince  us  that  mechanical  power  and  mechanical  skill, 
as  they  are  now  exhibited  in  Europe  and  America,  mark  an 
epoch  in  human  history  worthy  of  all  admiration.  Machinery 
is  made  to  perform  what  has  formerly  been  the  toil  of  human 
hands,  to  an  extent  that  astonishes  the  most  sanguine,  with  a 
degree  of  power  to  which  no  number  of  human  arms  is  equal, 
and  with  such  precision  and  exactness  as  almost  to  suggest  the 
notion  of  reason  and  intelligence  in  the  machines  themselves. 
Every  natural  agent  is  put  unrelentingly  to  the  task.  The 
winds  work,  the  waters  work,  the  elasticity  of  metals  works ; 
gravity  is  solicited  into  a  thousand  new  forms  of  action ;  levers 
are  multiplied  upon  levers ;  wheels  revolve  on  the  peripheries  of 
other  wheels ;  the  saw  and  the  plane  are  tortured  into  an  accom 
modation  to  new  uses,  and,  last  of  all,  with  inimitable  power, 
and  "  with  whirlwind  sound,"  comes  the  potent  agency  of  steam. 
In  comparison  with  the  past,  what  centuries  of  improvement 
has  this  single  agent  comprised,  in  the  short  compass  of  fifty 
years !  Everywhere  practicable,  everywhere  efficient,  it  has  an 
arm  a  thousand  times  stronger  than  that  of  Hercules,  and  to 
which  human  ingenuity  is  capable  of  fitting  a  thousand  times 
as  many  hands  as  belonged  to  Briareus.  Steam  is  found  in  tri 
umphant  operation  on  the  seas ;  and  under  the  influence  of  its 
strong  propulsion,  the  gallant  ship, 
16* 


186  THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

"  Against  the  wind,  against  the  tide, 
Still  steadies,  with  an  upright  keel." 

It  is  on  the  rivers,  and  the  boatman  may  repose  on  his  oars ;  it 
is  on  highways,  and  begins  to  exert  itself  along  the  courses  of 
land  conveyance ;  it  is  at  the  bottom  of  mines,  a  thousand  feet 
below  the  earth's  surface ;  it  is  in  the  mill,  and  in  the  workshops 
of  the  trades.  It  rows,  it  pumps,  it  excavates,  it  carries,  it 
draws,  it  lifts,  it  hammers,  it  spins,  it  weaves,  it  prints.  It 
seems  to  say  to  men,  at  least  to  the  class  of  artisans,  "  Leave 
off  your  manual  labor,  give  over  your  bodily  toil ;  bestow  but 
your  skill  and  reason  to  the  directing  of  my  power,  and  I  will 
bear  the  toil,  —  with  no  muscle  to  grow  weary,  no  nerve  to  re 
lax,  no  breast  to  feel  faintness."  What  further  improvements 
may  still  be  made  in  the  use  of  this  astonishing  power,  it  is 
impossible  to  know,  and  it  were  vain  to  conjecture.  What  we 
do  know  is,  that  it  has  most  essentially  altered  the  face  of 
affairs,  and  that  no  visible  limit  yet  appears,  beyond  which  its 
progress  is  seen  to  be  impossible.  If  its  power  were  now  to  be 
annihilated,  if  we  were  to  miss  it  on  the  water  and  in  the  mills, 
it  would  seem  as  if  we  were  going  back  to  rude  ages. 

This  society,  then,  Gentlemen,  is  instituted  for  the  purpose  of 
further  and  further  applying  science  to  the  arts,  at  a  time  when 
there  is  much  of  science  to  -be  applied.  Philosophy  and  the 
mathematics  have  attained  to  high  degrees,  and  still  stretch 
their  wings  like  the  eagle.  Chemistry,  at  the  same  time,  acting 
in  another  direction,  has  made  equally  important  discoveries, 
capable  of  a  direct  application  to  the  purposes  of  life.  Here, 
again,  within  so  short  a  period  as  the  lives  of  some  of  us, 
almost  all  that  is  known  has  been  learned.  And  while  there  is 
this  aggregate  of  science,  already  vast,  but  still  rapidly  increas 
ing,  offering  itself  to  the  ingenuity  of  mechanical  contrivance, 
there  is  a  corresponding  demand  for  every  work  and  invention 
of  art,  produced  by  the  wants  of  a  rich,  an  enterprising,  and  an 
elegant  age.  Associations  like  this,  therefore,  have  materials  to 
work  upon,  ends  to  work  for,  and  encouragement  to  work. 

It  may  not  be  improper  to  suggest,  that  not  only  are  the  gen 
eral  circumstances  of  the  age  favorable  to  such  institutions  as 
this,  but  that  there  seems  a  high  degree  of  propriety  that  one  or 
more  should  be  established  here,  in  the  metropolis  of  New  Eng 
land.  In  no  other  part  of  the  country  is  there  so  great  a  con- 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION.  187 

centration  of  mechanical  operations.  Events  have  given  to 
New  England  the  lead  in  the  great  business  of  domestic  man 
ufactures.  Her  thickened  population,  her  energetic  free  labor, 
her  abundant  falls  of  water,  and  various  other  causes,  have  led 
her  citizens  to  engage,  with  great  boldness,  in  extensive  man 
ufactures.  The  success  of  their  establishments  depends,  of 
course,  in  no  small  degree,  upon  the  perfection  to  which  ma 
chinery  may  be  carried.  Improvement  in  this,  therefore,  instead 
of  being  left  to  chance  or  accident,  is  justly  regarded  as  a  fit 
subject  of  assiduous  study.  The  attention  of  our  community 
is  also,  at  the  present  moment,  strongly  attracted  towards  the 
construction  of  canals,  railways,  dry  docks,  and  other  important 
public  works.  Civil  engineering  is  becoming  a  profession,  offer 
ing  honorable  support  and  creditable  distinction  to  such  as  may 
qualify  themselves  to  discharge  its  duties.  Another  interesting 
fact  is  before  us.  New  taste  and  a  new  excitement  are  evidently 
springing  up  in  our  vicinity  in  regard  to  an  art,  which,  as  it 
unites  in  a  singular  degree  utility  and  beauty,  affords  inviting 
encouragements  to  genius  and  skill.  I  mean  Architecture. 
Architecture  is  military,  naval,  sacred,  civil,  or  domestic.  Naval 
architecture,  certainly,  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  a  com 
mercial  and  navigating  people  to  say  nothing  of  its  intimate 
and  essential  connection  with  the  means  of  national  defence. 
This  science  should  not  be  regarded  as  having  already  reached 
its  utmost  perfection.  It  seems  to  have  been  for  some  time  in 
a  course  of  rapid  advancement.  The  building,  the  rigging,  the 
navigating  of  ships,  have,  within  the  knowledge  of  every  one, 
been  subjects  of  great  improvement  within  the  last  fifteen  years. 
And  where,  rather  than  in  New  England,  may  still  further  im 
provements  be  looked  for?  Where  is  ship-building  either  a 
greater  business,  or  pursued  with  more  skill  and  eagerness  ? 

In  civil,  sacred,  and  domestic  architecture,  present  appearances 
authorize  the  strongest  hopes  of  improvement.  These  hopes 
rest,  among  other  things,  on  unambiguous  indications  of  the 
growing  prevalence  of  a  just  taste.  The  principles  of  architec 
ture  are  founded  in  nature,  or  good  sense,  as  much  as  the  prin 
ciples  of  epic  poetry.  This  art  constitutes  a  beautiful  medium 
between  what  belongs  to  mere  fancy  and  what  belongs  entirely 
to  the  exact  sciences.  In  its  forms  and  modifications  it  admits 
of  infinite  variation,  giving  broad  room  for  invention  and  ge-« 


188  THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

nius ;  while,  in  its  general  principles,  it  is  founded  on  that  which 
long  experience  and  the  concurrent  judgment  of  ages  have  as 
certained  to  be  generally  pleasing.  Certain  relations  of  parts  to 
parts  have  been  satisfactory  to  all  the  cultivated  generations  of 
men.  These  relations  constitute  what  is  called  proportion,  and 
this  is  the  great  basis  of  architectural  art.  This  established  pro 
portion  is  not  to  be  followed  merely  because  it  is  ancient,  but  be 
cause  its  us'e,  and  the  pleasure  which  it  has  been  found  capable 
of  giving  to  the  mind,  through  the  eye,  in  ancient  times,  and 
modem  times,  and  all  civilized  times,  prove  that  its  principles 
are  well  founded  and  just ;  in  the  same  manner  that  the  Iliad  is 
proved,  by  the  consent  of  all  ages,  to  be  a  good  poem. 

Architecture,  I  have  said,  is  an  art  that  unites  in  a  singular 
manner  the  useful  and  the  beautiful.  It  is  not  to  be  inferred 
from  this  that  every  thing  in  architecture  is  beautiful,  or  is  to  be 
so  esteemed,  in  exact  proportion  to  its  apparent  utility.  No  more 
is  meant,  than  that  nothing  which  evidently  thwarts  utility  can 
or  ought  to  be  accounted  beautiful ;  because,  in  every  work  of 
art,  the  design  is  to  be  regarded,  and  what  defeats  that  design 
cannot  be  considered  as  well  done.  The  French  rhetoricians 
have  a  maxim,  that,  in  literary  composition,  "  nothing  is  beauti 
ful  which  is  not  true."  They  do  not  intend  to  say,  that  strict 
and  literal  truth  is  alone  beautiful  in  poetry  or  oratory ;  but  they 
mean,  that  that  which  grossly  offends  against  probability  is  not 
in  good  taste  in  either.  The  same  relation  subsists  between 
beauty  and  utility  in  architecture  as  between  truth  and  imagi 
nation  in  poetry.  Utility  is  not  to  be  obviously  sacrificed  to 
beauty,  in  the  one  case;  truth  and  probability  are  not  to  be 
outraged  for  the  cause  of  fiction  and  fancy,  in  the  other.  In  the 
severer  styles  of  architecture,  beauty  and  utility  approach  so  as 
to  be  almost  identical.  Where  utility  is  more  especially  the 
main  design,  the  proportions  which  produce  it  raise  the  sense  or 
feeling  of  beauty,  by  a  sort  of  reflection  or  deduction  of  the 
mind.  It  is  said  that  ancient  Rome  had  perhaps  no  finer  speci 
mens  of  the  classic  Doric  than  the  sewers  which  ran  under  her 
streets,  and  which  were  of  course  always  to  be  covered  from 
human  observation :  so  true  is  it,  that  cultivated  taste  is  always 
pleased  with  justness  of  proportion ;  and  that  design,  seen  to  be 
accomplished,  gives  pleasure.  The  discovery  and  fast-increasing 
nse  of  a  noble  material,  found  in  vast  abundance  nearer  to  our 


THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION.  189 

city  than  the  Pentelican  quarries  to  Athens,  may  well  awaken, 
as  they  do,  new  attention  to  architectural  improvement.  If 
this  material  be  not  entirely  well  suited  to  the  elegant  Ionic  or 
the  rich  Corinthian,  it  is  yet  fitted,  beyond  marble,  beyond  per 
haps  almost  any  other  material,  for  the  Doric,  of  which  the  ap 
propriate  character  is  strength,  and  for  the  Gothic,  of  which  the 
appropriate  character  is  grandeur. 

It  is  not  more  than  justice,  perhaps,  to  our  ancestors,  to  call 
the  Gothic  the  English  classic  architecture;  for  in  England, 
probably,  are  its  most  distinguished  specimens.  As  its  leading 
characteristic  is  grandeur,  its  main  use  would  seem  to  be  sacred. 
It  had  its  origin,  indeed,  in  ecclesiastical  architecture.  Its  evi 
dent  design  was  to  surpass  the  ancient  orders  by  the  size  of  the 
structure  and  its  far  greater  heights ;  to  excite  perceptions  of 
beauty  by  the  branching  traceries  and  the  gorgeous  tabernacles 
within ;  and  to  inspire  religious  awe  and  reverence  by  the  lofty 
pointed  arches,  the  flying  buttresses,  the  spires,  and  the  pinna 
cles,  springing  from  beneath,  and  stretching  upwards  towards 
the  heavens  with  the  prayers  of  the  worshippers.  Architectural 
beauty  having  always  a  direct  reference  to  utility,  edifices, 
whether  civil  or  sacred,  must  of  course  undergo  different  chan 
ges,  in  different  places,  on  account  of  climate,  and  in  different 
ages,  on  account  of  the  different  states  of  other  arts  or  different 
notions  of  convenience.  The  hypethral  temple,  for  example,  or 
temple  without  a  roof,  is  not  to  be  thought  of  in  our  latitude ; 
and  the  use  of  glass,  a  thing  not  now  to  be  dispensed  with,  is 
also  to  be  accommodated,  as  well  as  it  may  be,  to  the  architec 
tural  structure.  These  necessary  variations,  and  many  more  ad 
missible  ones,  give  room  for  improvements  to  an  indefinite  ex 
tent,  without  departing  from  the  principles  of  true  taste.  May 
we  not  hope,  then,  to  see  our  own  city  celebrated  as  the  city  of 
architectural  excellence  ?  May  we  not  hope  to  see  our  native 
granite  reposing  in  the  ever-during  strength  of  the  Doric,  or 
springing  up  in  the  grand  and  lofty  Gothic,  in  forms  which 
beauty  and  utility,  the  eye  and  the  judgment,  taste  and  devo 
tion,  shall  unite  to  approve  and  to  admire  ?  But  while  we  re 
gard  sacred  and  civil  architecture  as  highly  important,  let  us  not 
forget  that  other  branch,  so  essential  to  personal  comfort  and 
happiness,  —  domestic  architecture  or  common  house-building. 
In  ancient  times,  in  all  governments,  and  under  despotic  govern- 


190  THE  BOSTON  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTION. 

ments  in  all  times,  the  convenience  or  gratification  of  the  mon 
arch,  the  government,  or  the  public  has  been  allowed  too  often 
to  put  aside  considerations  of  personal  and  individual  happi 
ness.  With  us,  different  ideas  happily  prevail.  With  us,  it  is 
not  the  public,  or  the  government,  in  its  corporate  character,  that 
is  the  only  object  of  regard.  The  public  happiness  is  to  be  the 
aggregate  of  the  happiness  of  individuals.  Our  system  begins 
with  the  individual  man.  It  begins  with  him  when  he  leaves 
the  cradle ;  and  it  proposes  to  instruct  him  in  knowledge  and  in 
morals,  to  prepare  him  for  his  state  of  manhood ;  on  his  arrival 
at  that  state,  to  invest  him  with  political  rights,  to  protect  him 
in  his  property  and  pursuits,  and  in  his  family  and  social  con 
nections;  and  thus  to  enable  him  to  enjoy,  as  an  individual 
moral  and  rational  being,  what  belongs  to  a  moral  and  rational 
being.  For  the  same  reason,  the  arts  are  to  be  promoted  for 
their  general  utility,  as  they  affect  the  personal  happiness  and  well- 
being  of  the  individuals  who  compose  the  community.  It  would 
be  adverse  to  the  whole  spirit  of  our  system,  that  we  should  have 
gorgeous  and  expensive  public  buildings,  if  individuals  were  at 
the  same  time  to  live  in  houses  of  mud.  Our  public  edifices  are 
to  be  reared  by  the  surplus  of  wealth  and  the  savings  of  labor, 
after  the  necessities  and  comforts  of  individuals  are  provided  for ; 
and  not,  like  the  Pyramids,  by  the  unremitted  toil  of  thousands 
of  half-starved  slaves.  Domestic  architecture,  therefore,  as  con 
nected  with  individual  comfort  and  happiness,  is  to  hold  a  first 
place  in  the  esteem  of  our  artists.  Let  our  citizens  have  houses 
cheap,  but  comfortable;  not  gaudy,  but  in  good  taste;  not 
judged  by  the  portion  of  earth  they  cover,  but  by  their  symme 
try,  their  fitness  for  use,  and  their  durability. 

Without  further  reference  to  particular  arts  with  which  the 
objects  of  this  society  have  a  close  connection,  it  may  yet  be 
added,  generally,  that  this  is  a  period  of  great  activity,  of  indus 
try,  of  enterprise  in  the  various  walks  of  life.  It  is  a  period, 
too,  of  growing  wealth  and  increasing  prosperity.  It  is  a  time 
when  men  are  fast  multiplying,  but  when  means  are  increasing 
still  faster  than  men.  An  auspicious  moment,  then,  it  is,  full  of 
motive  and  encouragement,  for  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  those 
inquiries  which  have  for  their  object  the  discovery  of  farther  and 
farther  means  of  uniting  the  results  of  scientific  research  to  the 
arts  and  business  of  life. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


IN  February,  1831,  several  distinguished  gentlemen  of  the  city  cf  New 
York,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  a  large  number  of  other  citizens,  in 
vited  Mr.  Webster  to  a  public  dinner,  as  a  mark  of  their  respect  for  the 
value  and  success  of  his  efforts,  in  the  preceding  session  of  Congress,  in 
defence  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  His  speech  in  reply  to 
Mr.  Hayne  (contained  in  a  subsequent  volume  of  this  collection),  which, 
by  that  time,  had  been  circulated  and  read  through  the  country  to  a 
greater  extent  than  any  speech  ever  before  delivered  in  Congress,  was  the 
particular  effort  which  led  to  this  invitation. 

The  dinner  took  place  at  the  City  Hotel,  on  the  10th  of  March,  and  was 
attended  by  a  very  large  assembly. 

Chancellor  Kent  presided,  and,  in  proposing  to  the  company  the  health 
of  their  guest,  made  the  following  remarks  :  — 

"  New  England  has  been  long  fruitful  in  great  men,  the  necessary 
consequence  of  the  admirable  discipline  of  her  institutions  ;  and  we  are 
this  day  honored  with  the  presence  of  one  of  those  cherished  objects  of 
her  attachment  and  pride,  who  has  an  undoubted  and  peculiar  title  to  our 
regard.  It  is  a  plain  truth,  that  he  who  defends  the  constitution  of  his 
country  by  his  wisdom  in  council  is  entitled  to  share  her  gratitude  with 
those  who  protect  it  by  valor  in  the  field.  Peace  has  its  victories  as 
well  as  war.  We  all  recollect  a  late  memorable  occasion,  when  the  ex 
alted  talents  and  enlightened  patriotism  of  the  gentleman  to  whom  I 
have  alluded  were  exerted  in  the  support  of  our  national  Union  and  the 
sound  interpretation  of  its  charter. 

"  If  there  be  any  one  political  precept  preeminent  above  all  others  and 
acknowledged  by  all,  it  is  that  which  dictates  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
union  of  the  States  under  one  government,  and  that  government  clothed 
with  those  attributes  and  powers  with  which  the  existing  Constitution  has 
invested  it.  We  are  indebted,  under  Providence,  to  the  operation  and 
influence  of  the  powers  of  that  Constitution  for  our  national  honor 
abroad  and  for  unexampled  prosperity  at  home.  Its  future  stability  de 
pends  upon  the  firm  support  and  due  exercise  of  its  legitimate  powers  in 
all  their  branches.  A  tendency  to  disunion,  to  anarchy  among  the  mem 
bers  rather  than  to  tyranny  in  the  head,  has  been  heretofore  the  melan- 

VOL.    I.  17 


194  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW   YORK. 

choly  fate  of  all  the  federal  governments  of  ancient  and  modern  Europe. 
Our  Union  and  national  Constitution  were  formed,  as  we  have  hitherto 
been  led  to  believe,  under  better  auspices  and  with  improved  wisdom. 
But  there  was  a  deadly  principle  of  disease  inherent  in  the  system.  The 
assumption  by  any  member  of  the  Union  of  the  right  to  question  and  re 
sist,  or  annul,  as  its  own  judgment  should  dictate,  either  the  laws  of  Con 
gress,  or  the  treaties,  or  the  decisions  of  the  federal  courts,  or  the  man 
dates  of  the  executive  power,  duly  made  and  promulgated  as  the  Consti 
tution  prescribes,  was  a  most  dangerous  assumption  of  power,  leading  to 
collision  and  the  destruction  of  the  system.  And  if,  contrary  to  all  our 
expectations,  we  should  hereafter  fail  in  the  grand  experiment  of  a  con 
federate  government  extending  over  some  of  the  fairest  portions  of  this 
continent,  and  destined  to  act,  at  the  same  time,  with  efficiency  and  har 
mony,  we  should  most  grievously  disappoint  the  hopes  of  mankind,  and 
blast  for  ever  the  fruits  of  the  Revolution. 

"  But,  happily  for  us,  the  refutation  of  such  dangerous  pretensions,  on 
the  occasion  referred  to,  was  signal  and  complete.  The  false  images  and 
delusive  theories  which  had  perplexed  the  thoughts  and  disturbed  the 
judgments  of  men,  were  then  dissipated  in  like  manner  as  spectres  dis 
appear  at  the  rising  of  the  sun.  The  inestimable  value  of  the  Union, 
and  the  true  principles  of  the  Constitution,  were  explained  by  clear  and 
accurate  reasonings,  and  enforced  by  pathetic  and  eloquent  illustrations. 
The  result  was  the  more  auspicious,  as  the  heretical  doctrines  which  were 
then  fairly  reasoned  down  had  been  advanced  by  a  very  respectable  por 
tion  of  the  Union,  and  urged  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  by  the  polished 
mind,  manly  zeal,  and  honored  name  of  a  distinguished  member  from  the 
South. 

"  The  consequences  of  that  discussion  have  been  extremely  beneficial. 
It  turned  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  great  doctrines  of  national 
rights  and  national  union.  Constitutional  law  ceased  to  remain  wrapped 
up  in  the  breasts,  and  taught  only  by  the  responses,  of  the  living  oracles 
of  the  law.  Socrates  was  said  to  have  drawn  down  philosophy  from  the 
skies,  and  scattered  it  among  the  schools.  It  may  with  equal  truth  be 
said  that  constitutional  law,  by  means  of  those  senatorial  discussions  and 
the  master  genius  that  guided  them,  was  rescued  from  the  archives  of  our 
tribunals  and  the  libraries  of  lawyers,  and  placed  under  the  eye,  and  sub 
mitted  to  the  judgment,  of  the  American  people.  Their  verdict  is  with 
MS,  and  from  it  there  lies  no  appeal" 

As  soon  as  the  immense  cheering  and  acclamations  with  which  this 
address  and  toast  were  received  had  subsided,  Mr.  Webster  rose  and 
addressed  the  company  as  follows. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 


I  OWE  the  honor  of  this  occasion,  Gentlemen,  to  your  patriotic 
and  affectionate  attachment  to  the  Constitution  of  our  country. 
For  an  effort,  well  intended,  however  otherwise  of  unpretending 
character,  made  in  the  discharge  of  public  duty,  and  designed  to 
maintain  the  Constitution  and  vindicate  its  just  powers,  you 
have  been  pleased  to  tender  me  this  token  of  your  respect.  It 
would  be  idle  affectation  to  deny  that  it  gives  me  singular  grati 
fication.  Every  public  man  must  naturally  desire  the  approba 
tion  of  his  fellow-citizens ;  and  though  it  may  be  supposed  that 
I  should  be  anxious,  in  the  first  place,  not  to  disappoint  the  ex 
pectations  of  those  whose  immediate  representative  I  am,  it  is 
not  possible  but  that  I  should  feel,  nevertheless,  the  high  value 
of  such  a  mark  of  esteem  as  is  here  offered.  But,  Gentlemen, 
I  am  conscious  that  the  main  purpose  of  this  occasion  is  higher 
than  mere  manifestation  of  personal  regard.  It  is  to  evince 
your  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  your  sense  of  its  transcendent 
value,  and  your  just  alarm  at  whatever  threatens  to  weaken  its 
proper  authority,  or  endanger  its  existence. 

Gentlemen,  this  could  hardly  be  otherwise.  .  It  would  be 
strange,  indeed,  if  the  members  of  this  vast  commercial  com 
munity  should  not  be  first  and  foremost  to  rally  for  the  Consti 
tution,  whenever  opinions  and  doctrines  are  advanced  hostile 
to  its  principles.  Where  sooner  than  here,  where  louder  than 
here,  may  we  expect  a  patriotic  voice  to  be  raised,  when  the 
union  of  the  States  is  threatened  ?  In  this  great  emporium,  at 
this  central  point  of  the  united  commerce  of  the  United  States, 
of  all  places,  we  may  expect  the  wannest,  the  most  determined 
and  universal  feeling  of  attachment  to  the  national  govern 
ment.  Gentlemen,  no  one  can  estimate  more  highly  than  I  do 


19b  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW    YORK. 

the   natural   advantages  of  your  city.      No   one   entertains  a 
higher  opinion  than  myself,  also,  of  that  spirit  of  wise  and  lib 
eral  policy,  which  has  actuated  the  government  of  your  own 
great  State  in  the  accomplishment  of  high  objects,  important 
to  the  growth  and  prosperity  both  of  the   State  and  the  city. 
But  all  these  local  advantages,  and  all  this  enlightened  state 
policy,  could  never  have  made  your  city  what  it  now  is,  without 
the  aid  and  protection  of  a  general  government,  extending  over 
all  the  States,  and  establishing  for  all  a  common  and  uniform 
system  of  commercial  regulation.     "Without  national  character, 
without  public  credit,  without  systematic  finance,  without  uni 
formity  of  commercial  laws,  all  other  advantages  possessed  by 
this  city  would  have  decayed  and  perished,  like  unripe  fruit. 
A  general  government  was,  for  years  before  it  was  instituted, 
the  great  object  of  desire  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  city.     New 
York,  at  a  very  early  day,  was  conscious  of  her  local  advantages 
for  commerce ;  she  saw  her  destiny,  and  was  eager  to  embrace 
it ;  but  nothing  else  than  a  general  government  could  make  free 
her  path  before  her,  and  set  her  forward  on  her  brilliant  career. 
She  early  saw  all  this,  and  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  great 
and  indispensable  object  she  bent  every  faculty,  and  exerted 
every  effort.     She  was  not  mistaken.    She  formed  no  false  judg 
ment.     At  the  moment  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  New 
York  was  the  capital  of  one   State,  and  contained  thirty-two 
or  three  thousand  people.     It  now  contains  more  than  two  hun 
dred  thousand  people,  and  is  justly  regarded  as  the  commercial 
capital,  not  only  of  all  the  United  States,  but  of  the  whole  con 
tinent  also,  from  the  pole  to  the  South  Sea.     Every  page  of  hei 
history,  for  the  last  forty  years,  bears  high  and  irresistible  testi 
mony  to  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  the  general  government. 
Her  astonishing  growth  is  referred  to,  and  quoted,  all  the  world 
over,  as  one  of  the  most  striking  proofs  of  the  effects  of  our 
Federal  Union.     To  suppose  her  now  to  be  easy  and  indiffer 
ent,  when  notions  are  advanced  tending  to  its  dissolution,  would 
be  to  suppose  her  equally  forgetful  of  the  past  and  blind  to  the 
present,  alike  ignorant  of  her  own  history  and  her  own  interest, 
metamorphosed,  from  all  that  she  has  been,  into  a  being  tired 
of  its  prosperity,  sick  of  its  own  growth  and  greatness,  and 
infatuated  for  its  own  destruction.     Every  blow  aimed  at  the 
union  of  the  States  strikes  on  the  tenderest  nerve  of  her  intere* 


PUBLIC  DINNER  A\    NEW    FORK.  197 

and  her  happiness.  To  bring  tne  Union  into  debate  is  to  bring 
her  own  future  prosperity  into  debate  also.  To  speak  of  arrest 
ing  the  laws  of  the  Union,  of  interposing  State  power  in  mat 
ters  of  commerce  and  revenue,  of  weakening  the  full  and  just 
authority  of  the  general  government,  would  be,  in  regard  to  this 
city,  but  another  mode  of  speaking  of  commercial  ruin,  of 
abandoned  wharfs,  of  vacated  houses,  of  diminished  and  dis 
persing  population,  of  bankrupt  merchants,  of  mechanics  with 
out  employment,  and  laborers  without  bread.  The  growth  of 
this  city  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  are  coevals 
and  contemporaries.  They  began  together,  they  have  flourished 
together,  and  if  rashness  and  folly  destroy  one,  the  other  will 
follow  it  to  the  tomb. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  growth  of  this  city  is 
extraordinary,  and  almost  unexampled.  It  is  now,  I  believe, 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  since  I  first  saw  it.  Within  that 
comparatively  short  period,  it  has  added  to  its  number  three 
times  the  whole  amount  of  its  population  when  the  Constitu 
tion  was  adopted.  Of  all  things  having  power  to  check  this 
prosperity,  of  all  things  potent  to  blight  and  blast  it,  of  all 
things  capable  of  compelling  this  city  to  recede  as  fast  as  she 
has  advanced,  a  disturbed  government,  an  enfeebled  public 
authority,  a  broken  or  a  weakened  union  of  the  States,  would 
be  most  efficacious.  This  would  be  cause  efficient  enough. 
Every  thing  else,  in  the  common  fortune  of  communities,  she 
may  hope  to  resist  or  to  prevent;  but  this  would  be  fatal  as 
the  arrow  of  death. 

Gentlemen,  you  have  personal  recollections  and  associations, 
connected  with  the  establishment  and  adoption  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  which  are  necessarily  called  up  on  an  occasion  like  this. 
It  is  impossible  to  forget  the  prominent  agency  exercised  by 
eminent  citizens  of  your  own,  in  regard  to  that  great  measure. 
Those  great  men  are  now  recorded  among  the  illustrious  dead ; 
but  they  have  left  names  never  to  be  forgotten,  and  never  to  be 
remembered  without  respect  and  veneration.  Least  of  all  can 
they  be  forgotten  by  you,  when  assembled  here  for  the  purpose 
of  signifying  your  attachment  to  the  Constitution,  and  your 
sense  of  its  inestimable  importance  to  the  happiness  of  the 
people. 

I  should  do  violence  to  my  own  feelings,  Gentlemen,  I  think  I 
17* 


198  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

should  offend  yours,  if  I  omitted  respectful  mention  of  distin 
guished  names  yet  fresh  in  your  recollections.  How  can  I  stand 
here,  to  speak  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
wisdom  of  its  provisions,  of  tl,ie  difficulties  attending  its  adop 
tion,  of  the  evils  from  which  it  rescued  the  country,  and  of  the 
prosperity  and  power  to  which  it  has  raised  it,  and  yet  pay  no 
tribute  to  those  who  were  highly  instrumental  in  accomplishing 
the  work  ?  While  we  are  here  to  rejoice  that  it  yet  stands  firm 
and  strong,  while  we  congratulate  one  another  that  we  live 
under  its  benign  influence,  and  cherish  hopes  of  its  long  dura 
tion,  we  cannot  forget  who  they  were  that,  in  the  day  of  our 
national  infancy,  in  the  times  of  despondency  and  despair, 
mainly  assisted  to  work  out  our  deliverance.  I  should  feel  that 
I  was  unfaithful  to  the  strong  recollections  which  the  occasion 
presses  upon  us,  that  I  was  not  true  to  gratitude,  not  true  to 
patriotism,  not  true  to  the  living  or  the  dead,  not  true  to  your 
feelings  or  my  own,  if  I  should  forbear  to  make  mention  of 
ALEXANDER  HAMILTON. 

Coming  from  the  military  service  of  the  country  yet  a  youth, 
but  with  knowledge  and  maturity,  even  in  civil  affairs,  far  be 
yond  his  years,  he  made  this  city  the  place  of  his  adoption ;  and 
he  gave  the  whole  powers  of  his  mind  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  weak  and  distracted  condition  of  the  country.  Daily  in 
creasing  in  acquaintance  and  confidence  with  the  people  of  Nf  w 
York,  he  saw,  what  they  also  saw,  the  absolute  necessity  c-f 
some  closer  bond  of  union  for  the  States.  This  was  the  great 
object  of  desire.  He  never  appears  to  have  lost  sight  of  it,  but 
was  found  in  the  lead  whenever  any  thing  was  to  be  attempted 
for  its  accomplishment.  One  experiment  after  another,  as  is 
well  known,  was  tried,  and  all  failed.  The  States  were  urgently 
called  on  to  confer  such  further  powers  on  the  old  Congress  as 
would  enable  it  to  redeem  the  public  faith,  or  to  adopt,  them 
selves,  some  general  and  common  principle  of  commercial  regu 
lation.  But  the  States  had  not  agreed,  and  were  not  likely  to 
agree.  In  this  posture  of  affairs,  so  full  of  public  difficulty  and 
public  distress,  commissioners  from  five  or  six  of  the  States  met, 
on  the  request  of  Virginia,  at  Annapolis,  in  September,  1786. 
The  precise  object  of  their  appointment  was  to  take  into  consid 
eration  the  trade  of  the  United  States ;  to  examine  the  relative 
situations  and  trade  of  the  several  States ;  and  to  consider  how 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW   YORK.  199 

-far  a  uniform  system  of  commercial  regulations  was  necessary 
to  their  common  interest  and  permanent  harmony.  Mr.  Hamil 
ton  was  one  of  these  commissioners ;  and  I  have  understood, 
though  I  cannot  assert  the  fact,  that  their  report  was  drawn  by 
him.  His  associate  from  this  State  was  the  venerable  Judge 
Benson,  who  has  lived  long,  and  still  lives,  to  see  the  happy  re 
sults  of  the  counsels  which  originated  in  this  meeting.  Of  its 
members,  he  and  Mr.  Madison  are,  I  believe,  now  the  only  sur 
vivors.  These  commissioners  recommended,  what  took  place 
the  next  year,  a  general  Convention  of  all  the  States,  to  take  into 
serious  deliberation  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  devise  such 
provisions  as  should  render  the  constitution  of  the  federal  gov 
ernment  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the  Union.  I  need  not 
remind  you,  that  of  this  Convention  Mr.  Hamilton  was  an  active 
and  efficient  member.  The  Constitution  was  framed,  and  sub 
mitted  to  the  country.  And  then  another  great  work  was  to  be 
undertaken.  The  Constitution  would  naturally  find,  and  did 
find,  enemies  and  opposers.  Objections  to  it  were  numerous, 
and  powerful,  and  spirited.  They  were  to  be  answered;  and 
they  were  effectually  answered.  The  writers  of  the  numbers  of 
the  Federalist,  Mr.  Hamilton,  Mr.  Madison,  and  Mr.  Jay,  so 
greatly  distinguished  themselves  in  their  discussions  of  the  Con 
stitution,  that  those  numbers  are  generally  received  as  important 
commentaries  on  the  text,  and  accurate  expositions,  in  general, 
of  its  objects  and  purposes.  Those  papers  were  all  written  and 
published  in  this  city.  Mr.  Hamilton  was  elected  one  of  the 
distinguished  delegation  from  the  city  to  the  State  Convention 
at  Poughkeepsie,  called  to  ratify  the  new  Constitution.  Its  de 
bates  are  published.  Mr.  Hamilton  appears  to  have  exerted,  on 
this  occasion,  to  the  utmost,  every  power  and  faculty  of  his  mind. 
The  whole  question  was  likely  to  depend  on  the  decision  of 
New  York.  He  felt  the  full  importance  of  the  crisis ;  and  the 
reports  of  his  speeches,  imperfect  as  they  probably  are,  are  yet 
lasting  monuments  to  his  genius  and  patriotism.  He  saw  at 
last  his  hopes  fulfilled ;  he  saw  the  Constitution  adopted,  and 
the  government  under  it  established  and  organized.  The  dis 
cerning  eye  of  Washington  immediately  called  him  to  that  post, 
which  was  far  the  most  important  in  the  administration  of  the 
new  system.  He  was  made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  and 
how  he  fulfilled  the  duties  of  such  a  place,  at  such  a  time,  the 


200  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

whole  country  perceived  with  delight  and  the  whole  world  saw 
with  admiration.  He  smote  the  rock  of  the  national  resources, 
and  abundant  streams  of  revenue  gushed  forth.  He  touched 
the  dead  corpse  of  the  Public  Credit,  and  it  sprung  upon  its 
feet.  The  fabled  birth  of  Minerva,  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  was 
hardly  more  sudden  or  more  perfect  than  the  financial  system  o* 
the  United  States,  as  it  burst  forth  from  the  conceptions  r( 
ALEXANDER  HAMILTON. 

Your  recollections,  Gentlemen,  your  respect,  and  your  affec 
tions,  all  conspire  to  bring  before  you,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  an 
other  great  man,  now  too  numbered  with  the  dead.  I  mean  the 
pure,  the  disinterested,  the  patriotic  JOHN  JAY.  His  character  is 
a  brilliant  jewel  in  the  sacred  treasures  of  national  reputation, 
Leaving  his  profession  at  an  early  period,  yet  not  before  he  had 
singularly  distinguished  himself  in  it,  his  whole  life,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  Revolution  until  his  final  retirement,  was 
a  life  of  public  service.  A  member  of  the  first  Congress,  he 
was  the  author  of  that  political  paper  which  is  generally  ac 
knowledged  to  stand  first  among  the  incomparable  productions 
of  that  body ;  *  productions  which  called  forth  that  decisive  strain 
of  commendation  from  the  great  Lord  Chatham,  in  which  he 
pronounced  them  not  inferior  to  the  finest  productions  of  the 
master  states  of  the  world.  Mr.  Jay  had  been  abroad,  and  he 
had  also  been  long  intrusted  with  the  difficult  duties  of  our  for 
eign  correspondence  at  home.  He  had  seen  and  felt,  in  the  full 
est  measure  and  to  the  greatest  possible  extent,  the  difficulty  of 
conducting  our  foreign  affairs  honorably  and  usefully,  without  a 
stronger  arid  more  perfect  domestic  union.  Though  not  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution,  he  was 
yet  present  while  it  was  in  session,  and  looked  anxiously  for  its 
result.  By  the  choice  of  this  city,  he  had  a  seat  in  the  State 
Convention,  and  took  an  active  and  zealous  part  for  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Constitution.  On  the  organization  of  the  new  gov 
ernment,  he  was  selected  by  Washington  to  be  the  first  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  and  surely 
the  high  and  most  responsible  duties  of  that  station  could  not 
have  been  trusted  to  abler  or  safer  hands.  It  is  the  duty  of  that 
tribunal,  one  of  equal  importance  and  delicacy,  to  decide  consti- 

*  Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Britain 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  201 

tutional  questions,  occasionally  arising  on  State  laws.  The 
general  learning  and  ability,  and  especially  the  prudence,  the 
mildness,  and  the  firmness  of  his  character,  eminently  fitted 
Mr.  Jay  to  be  the  head  of  such  a  court.  When  the  spotless 
ermine  of  the  judicial  robe  fell  on  John  Jay,  it  touched  nothing 
less  spotless  than  itself. 

These  eminent  men,  Gentlemen,  the  contemporaries  of  some 
of  you,  known  to  most,  and  revered  by  all,  were  so  conspicuous 
in  the  framing  and  adopting  of  the  Constitution,  and  called  so 
early  to  important  stations  under  it,  that  a  tribute,  better, 
indeed,  than  I  have  given,  or  am  able  to  give,  seemed  due  to 
them  from  us,  on  this  occasion. 

There  was  yet  another,  of  whom  mention  is  to  be  made.  In 
the  Revolutionary  history  of  the  country,  the  name  of  CHANCEL 
LOR  LIVINGSTON  became  early  prominent.  He  was  a  member 
of  that  Congress  which  declared  Independence ;  and  a  member, 
too,  of  the  committee  which  drew  and  reported  the  immortal 
Declaration.  At  the  period  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
he  was  its  firm  friend  and  able  advocate.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  State  Convention,  being  one  of  that  list  of  distinguished  and 
gifted  men  who  represented  this  city  in  that  body ;  and  he  threw 
the  whole  weight  of  his  talents  and  influence  into  the  doubtful 
scale  of  the  Constitution. 

Gentlemen,  as  connected  with  the  Constitution,  you  have  also 
local  recollections  which  must  bind  it  still  closer  to  your  attach 
ment  and  affection.  It  commenced  its  being  and  its  blessings 
here.  It  was  in  this  city,  in  the  midst  of  friends,  anxious,  hope 
ful,  and  devoted,  that  the  new  government  started  in  its  course. 
To  us,  Gentlemen,  who  are  younger,  it  has  come  down  by  tradi 
tion  ;  but  some  around  me  are  old  enough  to  have  witnessed, 
and  did  witness,  the  interesting  scene  of  the  first  inauguration, 
They  remember  what  voices  of  gratified  patriotism,  what  shouts 
of  enthusiastic  hope,  what  acclamations  rent  the  air,  how  many 
eyes  were  suffused  with  tears  of  joy,  how  cordially  each  man 
pressed  the  hand  of  him  who  was  next  to  him,  when,  standing  in 
the  open  air,  in  the  centre  of  the  city,  in  the  view  of  assembled 
thousands,  the  first  President  of  the  United  States  was  heard  sol 
emnly  to  pronounce  the  words  of  his  official  oath,  repeating  them 
from  the  lips  of  Chancellor  Livingston.  You  then  thought,  Gen 
tlemen,  that  the  great  work  of  the  Revolution  was  accomplished. 


202  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

You  then  felt  that  you  had  a  government ;  that  the  United  States 
were  then,  indeed,  united.  Every  benignant  star  seemed  to  shed 
its  selectest  influence  on  that  auspicious  hour.  Here  were  he 
roes  of  the  Revolution ;  here  were  sages  of  the  Convention ; 
here  were  minds,  disciplined  and  schooled  in  all  the  various  for 
tunes  of  the  country,  acting  now  in  several  relations,  but  all 
cooperating  to  the  same  great  end,  the  successful  administration 
of  the  new  and  untried  Constitution.  And  he,  —  how  shall  I 
speak  of  him  ?  —  he  was  at  the  head,  who  was  already  first  in 
war,  who  was  already  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  and 
who  was  now  shown  also,  by  the  unanimous  suffrage  of  the 
country,  to  be  first  in  peace. 

Gentlemen,  how  gloriously  have  the  hopes  then  indulged 
been  fulfilled !  Whose  expectation  was  then  so  sanguine,  I  may 
almost  ask,  whose  imagination  then  so  extravagant,  as  to  run 
forward,  and  contemplate  as  probable,  the  one  half  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  forty  years?  Who  among  you  can  go 
back  to  1789,  and  see  what  this  city,  and  this  country,  too,  then 
were ;  and,  beholding  what  they  now  are,  can  be  ready  to  con 
sent  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  shall  be  weak 
ened,  —  dishonored,  —  nullified  1 

Gentlemen,  before  I  leave  these  pleasant  recollections,  I  feel 
it  an  irresistible  impulse  of  duty  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  to 
another  distinguished  person,  not,  indeed,  a  fellow-citizen  of 
your  own,  but  associated  with  those  I  have  already  mentioned 
in  important  labors,  and  an  early  and  indefatigable  friend  and 
advocate  in  the  great  cause  of  the  Constitution.  I  refer  to  MR. 
MADISON.  I  am  aware,  Gentlemen,  that  a  tribute  of  regard  from 
me  to  him  is  of  little  importance ;  but  if  it  shall  receive  your 
approbation  and  sanction,  it  will  become  of  value.  Mr.  Madi 
son,  thanks  to  a  kind  Providence,  is  yet  among  the  living,  and 
there  is  certainly  no  other  individual  living,  to  whom  the  coun 
try  is  so  much  indebted  for  the  blessings  of  the  Constitution. 
He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  who  met  at  Annapolis,  in 
1786,  to  which  meeting  I  have  already  referred,  and  which,  to 
the  great  credit  of  Virginia,  had  its  origin  in  a  proceeding  of  that 
State.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  of  1787,  and  of 
that  of  Virginia  in  the  following  year.  He  was  thus  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  whole  progress  of  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution,  from  its  very  first  step  to  its  final  adoption.  If 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  203 

ever  man  had  the  means  of  understanding  a  written  instrument, 
Mr.  Madison  has  the  means  of  understanding  the  Constitution. 
If  it  be  possible  to  know  what  was  designed  by  it,  he  can  tell 
us.  It  was  in  this  city,  that,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Hamilton 
and  Mr.  Jay,  he  wrote  the  numbers  of  the  Federalist ;  and  it 
was  in  this  city  that  he  commenced  his  brilliant  career  under 
the  new  Constitution,  having  been  elected  into  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  first  Congress.  The  recorded  votes  and 
debates  of  those  times  show  his  active  and  efficient  agency  in 
every  important  measure  of  that  Congress.  The  necessary 
organization  of  the  government,  the  arrangement  of  the  depart 
ments,  and  especially  the  paramount  subject  of  revenue,  engaged 
his  attention,  and  divided  his  labors. 

The  legislative  history  of  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  the 
government  is  full  of  instruction.  It  presents,  in  striking  light, 
the  evils  intended  to  be  remedied  by  the  Constitution,  and  the 
provisions  which  were  deemed  essential  to  the  remedy  of  those 
evils.  It  exhibits  the  country,  in  the  moment  of  its  change 
from  a  weak  and  ill-defined  confederacy  of  States,  into  a  gen 
eral,  efficient,  but  still  restrained  and  limited  government.  It 
shows  the  first  working  of  our  peculiar  system,  moved,  as  it  then 
was,  by  master  hands. 

Gentlemen,  for  one,  I  confess  I  like  to  dwell  on  this  part  of 
our  history.  It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.  It  is  good  for  us  to 
study  the  situation  of  the  country  at  this  period,  to  survey  its 
difficulties,  to  look  at  the  conduct  of  its  public  men,  to  see  how 
they  struggled  with  obstacles,  real  and  formidable,  and  how  glo 
riously  they  brought  the  Union  out  of  its  state  of  depression 
and  distress.  Truly,  Gentlemen,  these  founders  and  fathers  of 
the  Constitution  were  great  men,  and  thoroughly  furnished  for 
every  good  work.  All  that  reading  and  learning  could  do ;  all 
that  talent  and  intelligence  could  do  ;  and,  what  perhaps  is  still 
more,  all  that  long  experience  in  difficult  and  troubled  times 
and  a  deep  and  intimate  practical  knowledge  of  the  condition 
of  the  country  could  do,  —  conspired  to  fit  them  for  the  great 
business  of  forming  a  general,  but  limited  government,  em 
bracing  common  objects,  extending  over  all  the  States,  and  yet 
touching  the  power  of  the  States  no  further  than  those  common 
objects  require.  I  confess  I  love  to  linger  around  these  original 
fountains,  and  to  drink  deep  of  their  waters.  I  love  to  imbibe, 


204  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW    YORK. 

in  as  full  measure  as  I  may,  the  spirit  of  those  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  government,  and  so  wisely  and  skilfully  bal 
anced  and  adjusted  its  bearings  and  proportions. 

Having  been  afterwards,  for  eight  years,  Secretary  of  State, 
and  as  long  President,  Mr.  Madison  has  had  an  experience  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Constitution,  certainly  second  to  no  man. 
More  than  any  other  man  living,  and  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  who  has  lived,  his  whole  public  life  has  been  incorporated, 
as  it  were,  into  the  Constitution ;  in  the  original  conception  and 
project  of  attempting  to  form  it,  in  its  actual  framing,  in  explain 
ing  and  recommending  it,  by  speaking  and  writing,  in  assisting 
at  the  first  organization  of  the  government  under  it,  and  in  a 
long  administration  of  its  executive  powers,  —  in  these  various 
ways  he  has  lived  near  the  Constitution,  and  with  the  power  of 
imbibing  its  true  spirit,  and  inhaling  its  very  breath,  from  its 
first  pulsation  of  life.  Again,  therefore,  I  ask,  If  he  cannot  tell 
us  what  the  Constitution  is,  and  what  it  means,  who  can  ?  He 
had  retired  with  the  respect  and  regard  of  the  community,  and 
might  naturally  be  supposed  not  willing  to  interfere  again  in 
matters  of  political  concern.  He  has,  nevertheless,  not  with- 
holden  his  opinions  on  the  vital  question  discussed  on  that  occa 
sion,  which  has  caused  this  meeting.  He  has  stated,  with  an 
accuracy  almost  peculiar  to  himself,  and  so  stated  as,  in  my 
opinion,  to  place  almost  beyond  further  controversy,  the  true 
doctrines  of  the  Constitution.  He  has  stated,  not  notions  too 
loose  and  irregular  to  be  called  even  a  theory,  not  ideas  struck 
oat  by  the  feeling  of  present  inconvenience  or  supposed  mal 
administration,  not  suggestions  of  expediency,  or  evasions  of 
fair  and  straightforward  construction,  but  elementary  principles, 
clear  and  sound  distinctions,  and  indisputable  truths.  I  am 
sure,  Gentlemen,  that  I  speak  your  sentiments,  as  well  as  my 
own,  when  I  say,  that,  for  making  public  so  clearly  and  distinct 
ly  as  he  has  done  his  own  opinions  on  these  vital  questions  of 
constitutional  law,  Mr.  Madison  has  founded  a  new  and  strong 
claim  on  the  gratitude  of  a  grateful  country.  You  will  think, 
with  me,  that,  at  his  advanced  age,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of 
general  respect  and  approbation  for  a  long  career  of  public  ser 
vices,  it  was  an  act  of  distinguished  patriotism,  when  he  saw 
notions  promulgated  and  maintained  which  he  deemed  unsound 
and  dangerous,  not  to  hesitate  to  come  forward  and  to  place  the 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW   YORK.  205 

weight  of  his  own  opinion  in  what  he  deemed  the  right  scale, 
come  what  come  might.  I  am  sure,  Gentlemen,  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  —  the  manifestation  is  clear,  —  that  the  country  feels 
deeply  the  force  of  this  new  obligation.* 

Gentlemen,  what  I  have  said  of  the  benefits  of  the  Constitu 
tion  to  your  city  might  be  said,  with  little  change,  in  respect  to 
every  other  part  of  the  country.  Its  benefits  are  not  exclusive. 
What  has  it  left  undone,  which  any  government  could  do,  for 
the  whole  country  ?  In  what  condition  has  it  placed  us  ?  Where 
do  we  now  stand  ?  Are  we  elevated,  or  degraded,  by  its  opera 
tion  ?  What  is  our  condition  under  its  influence,  at  the  very 
moment  when  some  talk  of  arresting  its  power  and  breaking  its 
unity  ?  Do  we  not  feel  ourselves  on  an  eminence  ?  Do  we  not 
challenge  the  respect  of  the  whole  world  ?  What  has  placed  us 
thus  high?  What  has  given  us  this  just  pride?  What  else  is 
it,  but  the  unrestrained  and  free  operation  of  that  same  Federal 
Constitution,  which  it  has  been  proposed  now  to  hamper,  and 
manacle,  and  nullify  ?  Who  is  there  among  us,  that,  should  he 
find  himself  on  any  spot  of  the  earth  where  human  beings  ex 
ist,  and  where  the  existence  of  other  nations  is  known,  would 
not  be  proud  to  say,  I  am  an  American  ?  I  am  a  countryman 
of  Washington?  I  am  a  citizen  of  that  republic,  which,  al 
though  it  has  suddenly  sprung  up,  yet  there  are  none  on  the 
globe  who  have  ears  to  hear,  and  have  not  heard  of  it ;  who 
have  eyes  to  see,  and  have  not  read  of  it ;  who  know  any  thing, 
and  yet  do  not  know  of  its  existence  and  its  glory  ?  And,  Gen 
tlemen,  let  me  now  reverse  the  picture.  Let  me  ask,  who  there 
is  among  us,  if  he  were  to  be  found  to-morrow  in  one  of  the 
civilized  countries  of  Europe,  and  were  there  to  learn  that  this 
goodly  form  of  government  had  been  overthrown,  that  the 
United  States  were  no  longer  united,  that  a  death-blow  had 
been  struck  upon  their  bond  of  union,  that  they  themselves 
had  destroyed  their  chief  good  and  their  chief  honor,  —  who  is 
there  whose  heart  would  not  sink  within  him  ?  Who  is  there 
who  would  not  cover  his  face  for  very  shame  ? 

At  this  very  moment,  Gentlemen,  our  country  is  a  general 
refuge  for  the  distressed  and  the  persecuted  of  other  nations. 
Whoever  is  in  affliction  from  political  occurrences  in  his  own 

*  The  reference  is  to  Mr.  Madison's  letter  on  the  subject  of  Nullification,  in 
the  Norih  American  Review,  Vol.  XXXI.  p.  537. 
VOL.    I.  18 


206  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK 

country  looks  here  for  shelter.  Whether  he  be  republican,  flying 
from  the  oppression  of  thrones,  or  whether  he  be  monarch  or 
monarchist,  flying  from  thrones  that  crumble  and  fall  under  or 
around  him,  he  feels  equal  assurance,  that,  if  he  get  foothold  on 
our  soil,  his  person  will  be  safe,  and  his  rights  will  be  respected. 

And  who  will  venture  to  say,  that,  in  any  government  now 
existing  in  the  world,  there  is  greater  security  for  persons  or 
property  than  in  that  of  the  United  States?  We  have  tried 
these  popular  institutions  in  times  of  great  excitement  and  com 
motion,  and  they  have  stood,  substantially,  firm  and  steady, 
while  the  fountains  of  the  great  political  deep  have  been  else 
where  broken  up ;  while  thrones,  resting  on  ages  of  prescription, 
have  tottered  and  fallen  ;  and  while,  in  other  countries,  the  earth 
quake  of  unrestrained  popular  commotion  has  swallowed  up  all 
law,  and  all  liberty,  and  all  right  together.  Our  government 
has  been  tried  in  peace,  and  it  has  been  tried  in  war,  and  has 
proved  itself  fit  for  both.  It  has  been  assailed  from  without, 
and  it  has  successfully  resisted  the  shock ;  it  has  been  disturbed 
within,  and  it  has  effectually  quieted  the  disturbance.  It  can 
stand  trial,  it  can  stand  assault,  it  can  stand  adversity,  it  can 
stand  every  thing,  but  the  marring  of  its  own  beauty,  and  the 
weakening  of  its  own  strength.  It  can  stand  every  thing  but 
the  effects  of  our  own  rashness  and  our  own  folly.  It  can  stand 
every  thing  but  disorganization,  disunion,  and  nullification. 

It  is  a  striking  fact,  and  as  true  as  it  is  striking,  that  at  this 
very  moment,  among  all  the  principal  civilized  states  of  the 
world,  that  government  is  most  secure  against  the  danger  of 
popular  commotion  which  is  itself  entirely  popular.  It  seems, 
indeed,  that  the  submission  of  every  thing  to  the  public  will, 
under  constitutional  restraints,  imposed  by  the  people  themselves, 
furnishes  itself  security  that  they  will  desire  nothing  wrong. 

Certain  it  is,  that  popular,  constitutional  liberty,  as  we  enjoy 
it,  appears,  in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  as  sure  and  stable 
a  basis  for  government  to  rest  upon,  as  any  government  of  en 
lightened  states  can  find,  or  does  find.  Certain  it  is,  that,  in 
these  times  of  so  much  popular  knowledge,  and  so  much  pop 
ular  activity,  those  governments  which  do  not  admit  the  people 
to  partake  in  then*  administration,  but  keep  them  under  and 
beneath,  sit  on  materials  for  an  explosion,  which  may  take  place 
at  any  moment,  and  blow  them  into  a  thousand  atoms. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  207 

Gentlemen,  let  any  man  who  would  degrade  and  enfeeble  the 
national  Constitution,  let  any  man  who  would  nullify  its  laws, 
stand  forth  and  tell  us  what  he  would  wish.  What  does  he  pro 
pose  ?  Whatever  he  may  be,  and  whatever  substitute  he  may 
hold  forth,  I  am  sure  the  people  of  this  country  will  decline  his 
kind  interference,  and  hold  on  by  the  Constitution  which  they 
possess.  Any  one  who  would  willingly  destroy  it,  I  rejoice  to 
know,  would  be  looked  upon  with  abhorrence.  It  is  deeply  in 
trenched  in  the  regards  of  the  people.  Doubtless  it  may  be 
undermined  by  artful  and  long-continued  hostility ;  it  may  be 
imperceptibly  weakened  by  secret  attack ;  it  may  be  insidiously 
shorn  of  its  powers  by  slow  degrees ;  the  public  vigilance  may 
be  lulled,  and  when  it  awakes,  it  may  find  the  Constitution  frit 
tered  away.  In  these  modes,  or  some  of  them,  it  is  possible 
that  the  union  of  the  States  may  be  dissolved. 

But  if  the  general  attention  of  the  people  be  kept  alive,  if 
they  see  the  intended  mischief  before  it  is  effected,  they  will 
prevent  it  by  their  own  sovereign  power.  They  will  interpose 
themselves  between  the  meditated  blow  and  the  object  of  their 
regard  and  attachment.  Next  to  the  controlling  authority  of 
the  people  themselves,  the  preservation  of  the  government  is 
mainly  committed  to  those  who  administer  it.  If  conducted  in 
wisdom,  it  cannot  but  stand  strong.  Its  genuine,  original  spirit 
is  a  patriotic,  liberal,  and  generous  spirit ;  a  spirit  of  conciliation, 
of  moderation,  of  candor,  and  charity ;  a  spirit  of  friendship, 
and  not  a  spirit  of  hostility  toward  the  States ;  a  spirit  careful 
not  to  exceed,  and  equally  carefal  not  to  relinquish,  its  just 
powers.  While  no  interest  can  or  ought  to  feel  itself  shut  out 
from  the  benefits  of  the  Constitution,  none  should  consider  those 
benefits  as  exclusively  its  own.  The  interests  of  all  must  be 
consulted,  and  reconciled,  and  provided  for,  as  far  as  possible, 
that  all  may  perceive  the  benefits  of  a  united  government. 

Among  other  things,  we  are  to  remember  that  new  States 
have  arisen,  possessing  already  an  immense  population,  spread 
ing  and  thickening  over  vast  regions  which  were  a  wilderness 
when  the  Constitution  was  adopted.  Those  States  are  not,  like 
New  York,  directly  connected  with  maritime  commerce.  They 
are  entirely  agricultural,  and  need  markets  for  consumption; 
and  they  need,  too,  access  to  those  markets.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  government  to  bring  the  interests  of  these  new  States  into 


208  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

the  Union,  and  incorporate  them  closely  in  the  family  compact. 
Gentlemen,  it  is  not  impracticable  to  reconcile  these  various 
interests,  and  so  to  administer  the  government  as  to  make  it 
useful  to  all.  It  was  never  easier  to  administer  the  government 
than  it  is  now.  We  are  beset  with  none,  or  with  few,  of  its 
original  difficulties ;  and  it  is  a  time  of  great  general  prosperity 
and  happiness.  Shall  we  admit  ourselves  incompetent  to  carry 
on  the  government,  so  as  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  whole  coun 
try  ?  Shall  we  admit  that  there  has  so  little  descended  to  us  of 
the  wisdom  and  prudence  of  our  fathers  ?  If  the  government 
could  be  administered  in  Washington's  time,  when  it  was  yet 
new,  when  the  country  was  heavily  in  debt,  when  foreign  rela 
tions  were  in  a  threatening  condition,  and  when  Indian  wars 
pressed  on  the  frontiers,  can  it  not  be  administered  now  ?  Let 
us  not  acknowledge  ourselves  so  unequal  to  our  duties. 

Gentlemen,  on  the  occasion  referred  to  by  the  chair,  it  be 
came  necessary  to  consider  the  judicial  power,  and  its  proper 
functions  under  the  Constitution.  In  every  free  and  balanced 
government,  this  is  a  most  essential  and  important  power.  In 
deed,  I  think  it  is  a  remark  of  Mr.  Hume,  that  the  administra 
tion  of  justice  seems  to  be  the  leading  object  of  institutions  of 
government;  that  legislatures  assemble,  that  armies  are  em 
bodied,  that  both  war  and  peace  are  made,  with  a  sort  of  ulti 
mate  reference  to  the  proper  administration  of  laws,  and  the 
judicial  protection  of  private  rights.  The  judicial  power  comes 
home  to  every  man.  If  the  legislature  passes  incorrect  or  unjust 
general  laws,  its  members  bear  the  evil  as  well  as  others.  But 
judicature  acts  on  individuals.  It  touches  every  private  right, 
every  private  interest,  and  almost  every  private  feeling.  What 
we  possess  is  hardly  fit  to  be  called  our  own,  unless  we  feel 
secure  in  its  possession ;  and  this  security,  this  feeling  of  perfect 
safety,  cannot  exist  under  a  wicked,  or  even  under  a  weak  and 
ignorant,  administration  of  the  laws.  There  is  no  happiness, 
there  is  no  liberty,  there  is  no  enjoyment  of  life,  unless  a  man 
can  say  when  he  rises  in  the  morning,  I  shall  be  subject  to  the 
decision  of  no  unjust  judge  to-day. 

But,  Gentlemen,  the  judicial  department,  under  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  possesses  still  higher  duties.  It  is 
true,  that  it  may  be  called  on,  and  is  occasionally  called  on,  to 
decide  questions  which  are,  in  one  sense,  of  a  political  nature. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  209 

The  general  and  State  governments,  both  established  by  the 
people,  are  established  for  different  purposes,  and  with  different 
powers.  Between  those  powers  questions  may  arise ;  and  who 
shall  decide  them  ?  Some  provision  for  this  end  is  absolutely 
necessary.  What  shall  it  be  ?  This  was  the  question  before 
the  Convention ;  and  various  schemes  were  suggested.  It  was 
foreseen  that  the  States  might  inadvertently  pass  laws  incon 
sistent  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  with  acts 
of  Congress.  At  least,  laws  might  be  passed  which  would  be 
charged  with  such  inconsistency.  How  should  these  questions 
be  disposed  of?  Where  shall  the  power  of  judging,  in  cases  of 
alleged  interference,  be  lodged?  One  suggestion  in  the  Con 
vention  was,  to  make  it  an  executive  power,  and  to  lodge  it  in 
the  hands  of  the  President,  by  requiring  all  State  laws  to  be 
submitted  to  him,  that  he  might  negative  such  as  he  thought 
appeared  repugnant  to  the  general  Constitution.  This  idea, 
perhaps,  may  have  been  borrowed  from  the  power  exercised  by 
the  crown  over  the  laws  of  the  Colonies.  It  would  evidently 
have  been,  not  only  an  inconvenient  and  troublesome  proceed 
ing,  but  dangerous  also  to  the  powers  of  the  States.  x  It  was 
not  pressed.  It  was  thought  wiser  and  safer,  on  the  whole,  to 
require  State  legislatures  and  State  judges  to  take  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  then  leave 
the  States  at  liberty  to  pass  whatever  laws  they  pleased,  and  if 
interference,  in  point  of  fact,  should  arise,  to  refer  the  question 
to  judicial  decision.  To  this  end,  the  judicial  power,  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  made  coextensive  with 
the  legislative  power.  It  was  extended  to  all  cases  arising  under 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  Congress.  The  judiciary  be 
came  thus  possessed  of  the  authority  of  deciding,  in  the  last 
resort,  in  all  cases  of  alleged  interference,  between  State  laws 
and  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  Congress. 

Gentlemen,  this  is  the  actual  Constitution,  this  is  the  law  of 
the  land.  There  may  be  those  who  think  it  unnecessary,  or  who 
would  prefer  a  different  mode  of  deciding  such  questions.  But 
this  is  the  established  mode,  and,  till  it  be  altered,  the  courts  can 
no  more  decline  their  duty  on  these  occasions  than  on  other 
occasions.  But  can  any  reasonable  man  doubt  the  expediency 
of  this  provision,  or  suggest  a  better?  Is  it  not  absolutely 
essential  to  the  peace  of  the  country  that  this  power  should  exist 
18* 


210  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT    NEW  YORK. 

somewhere  ?  Where  can  it  exist,  better  than  where  it  now  does 
exist?  The  national  judiciary  is  the  common  tribunal  of  the 
whole  country.  It  is  organized  by  the  common  authority,  and 
its  places  filled  by  the  common  agent.  This  is  a  plain  and 
practical  provision.  It  was  framed  by  no  bunglers,  nor  by  any 
wild  theorists.  And  who  can  say  that  it  has  failed  ?  Who  can 
find  substantial  fault  with  its  operation  or  its  results  ?  The 
great  question  is,  whether  we  shall  provide  for  the  peaceable 
decision  of  cases  of  collision.  Shall  they  be  decided  by  law,  or 
by  force  ?  Shall  the  decisions  be  decisions  of  peace,  or  decisions 
of  war  ? 

On  the  occasion  which  has  given  rise  to  this  meeting,  the 
proposition  contended  for  in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  just  stat 
ed  was,  that  every  State,  under  certain  supposed  exigencies, 
and  in  certain  supposed  cases,  might  decide  for  itself,  and  act 
for  itself,  and  oppose  its  own  force  to  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
By  what  argument,  do  you  imagine,  Gentlemen,  was  such  a 
proposition  maintained?  I  should  call  it  metaphysical  and 
subtle;  but  these  terms  would  imply  at  least  ingenuity,  and 
some  degree  of  plausibility ;  whereas  the  argument  appears  to 
me  plain  assumption,  mere  perverse  construction  of  plain  lan 
guage  in  the  body  of  the  Constitution  itself.  As  I  understand 
it,  when  put  forth  in  its  revised  and  most  authentic  shape,  it  is 
this :  that  the  Constitution  provides  that  any  amendments  may 
be  made  to  it  which  shall  be  agreed  to  by  three  fourths  of  the 
States ;  there  is,  therefore,  to  be  nothing  in  the  Constitution  to 
which  three  fourths  of  the  States  have  not  agreed.  All  this  is 
true;  but  then  comes  this  inference,  namely,  that,  when  one 
State  denies  the  constitutionality  of  any  law  of  Congress,  she 
may  arrest  its  execution  as  to  herself,  and  keep  it  arrested,  till 
the  States  can  all  be  consulted  by  their  conventions,  and  three 
fourths  of  them  shall  have  decided  that  the  law  is  constitutional. 
Indeed,  the  inference  is  still  stranger  than  this ;  for  State  con 
ventions  have  no  authority  to  construe  the  Constitution,  though 
they  have  authority  to  amend  it ;  therefore  the  argument  must 
prove,  if  it  prove  any  thing,  that,  when  any  one  State  denies 
that  any  particular  power  is  included  in  the  Constitution,  it  is 
to  be  considered  as  not  included,  and  cannot  be  found  there  till 
three  fourths  of  the  States  agree  to  insert  it.  In  short,  the  re 
sult  of  the  whole  is,  that,  though  it  requires  three  fourths  of  the 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW   YORK.  211 

States  to  insert  any  thing  in  the  Constitution,  yet  any  one 
State  can  strike  any  thing  out  of  it.  For  the  power  to  strike 
out,  and  the  power  of  deciding,  without  appeal,  upon  the  con 
struction  of  what  is  already  in,  are  substantially  and  practically 
the  same. 

And,  Gentlemen,  what  a  spectacle  should  we  have  exhibited 
under  the  actual  operation  of  notions  like  these !  At  the  very 
moment  when  our  government  was  quoted,  praised,  and  com 
mended  all  over  the  world,  when  the  friends  of  republican  lib 
erty  everywhere  were  gazing  at  it  with  delight,  and  were  in 
perfect  admiration  at  the  harmony  of  its  movements,  one  State 
steps  forth,  and,  by  the  power  of  nullification,  breaks  up  the 
whole  system,  and  scatters  the  bright  chain  of  the  Union  into 
as  many  sundered  links  as  there  are  separate  States ! 

Seeing  the  true  grounds  of  the  Constitution  thus  attacked,  I 
raised  my  voice  in  its  favor,  I  must  confess  with  no  preparation 
or  previous  intention.  I  can  hardly  say  that  I  embarked  in  the 
contest  from  a  sense  of  duty.  It  was  an  instantaneous  impulse 
of  inclination,  not  acting  against  duty,  I  trust,  but  hardly  wait 
ing  for  its  suggestions.  I  felt  it  to  be  a  contest  for  the  integrity 
of  the  Constitution,  and  I  was  ready  to  enter  into  it,  not  think 
ing,  or  caring,  personally,  how  I  might  come  out. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  true  pleasure  in  saying  that  I  trust  the 
crisis  has  in  some  measure  passed  by.  The  doctrines  of  nullifi 
cation  have  received  a  severe  and  stern  rebuke  from  public  opin 
ion.  The  general  reprobation  of  the  country  has  been  cast 
upon  them.  Recent  expressions  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of 
the  national  legislature  are  decisive  and  imposing.  Everywhere, 
the  general  tone  of  public  feeling  is  for  the  Constitution.  While 
much  will  be  yielded  —  every  thing,  almost,  but  the  integrity  of 
the  Constitution,  and  the  essential  interests  of  the  country  —  to 
the  cause  of  mutual  harmony  and  mutual  conciliation,  no 
ground  can  be  granted,  not  an  inch,  to  menace  and  bluster. 
Indeed,  menace  and  bluster,  and  the  putting  forth  of  daring, 
unconstitutional  doctrines,  are,  at  this  very  moment,  the  chief 
obstacles  to  mutual  harmony  and  satisfactory  accommodation. 
Men  cannot  well  reason,  and  confer,  and  take  counsel  together, 
about  the  discreet  exercise  of  a  power,  with  those  who  deny  that 
any  such  power  rightfully  exists,  and  who  threaten  to  blow  up 
the  whole  Constitution  if  they  cannot  otherwise  get  rid  of  its 


212  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

operation.  It  is  matter  of  sincere  gratification.  Gentlemen, 
that  the  voice  of  this  great  State  has  been  so  clear  and  strong, 
and  her  vote  all  but  unanimous,  on  the  most  interesting  of  these 
occasions,  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Certainly,  such 
respect  to  the  Union  becomes  New  York.  It  is  consistent  with 
her  interests  and  her  character.  That  singularly  prosperous 
State,  which  now  is,  and  is  likely  to  continue  to  be,  the  great 
est  link  in  the  chain  of  the  Union,  will  ever  be,  I  am  sure,  the 
strongest  link  also.  The  great  States  which  lie  in  her  neigh 
borhood  agreed  with  her  fully  in  this  matter.  Pennsylvania,  I 
believe,  was  loyal  to  the  Union,  to  a  man ;  and  Ohio  raises  her 
voice,  like  that  of  a  lion,  against  whatsoever  threatens  disunion 
and  dismemberment.  This  harmony  of  sentiment  is  truly  grati 
fying.  It  is  not  to  be  gainsaid,  that  the  union  of  opinion  in  this 
great  central  mass  of  our  population,  on  this  momentous  point 
of  the  Constitution,  augurs  well  for  our  future  prosperity  and 
security. 

I  have  said,  Gentlemen,  what  I  verily  believe  to  be  true,  that 
there  is  no  danger  to  the  Union  from  open  and  avowed  attacks 
on  its  essential  principles.  Nothing  is  to  be  feared  from  those 
who  will  march  up  boldly  to  their  own  propositions,  and  tell 
us  that  they  mean  to  annihilate  powers  exercised  by  Congress. 
But,  certainly,  there  are  dangers  to  the  Constitution,  and  we 
ought  not  to  shut  our  eyes  to  them.  We  know  the  importance 
of  a  firm  and  intelligent  judiciary ;  but  how  shall  we  secure  the 
continuance  of  a  firm  and  intelligent,  judiciary  ?  Gentlemen, 
the  judiciary  is  in  the  appointment  of  the  executive  power.  It 
cannot  continue  or  renew  itself.  Its  vacancies  are  to  be  filled 
in  the  ordinary  modes  of  executive  appointment.  If  the  time 
shall  ever  come  (which  Heaven  avert),  when  men  shall  be  placed 
in  the  supreme  tribunal  of  the  country,  who  entertain  opinions 
hostile  to  the  just  powers  of  the  Constitution,  we  shall  then  be 
visited  by  an  evil  defying  all  remedy.  Our  case  will  be  past 
surgery.  From  that  moment  the  Constitution  is  at  an  end. 
If  they  who  are  appointed  to  defend  the  castle  shall  betray  it, 
woe  betide  those  within !  If  I  live  to  see  that  day  come,  I  shall 
despair  of  the  country.  I  shall  be  prepared  to  give  it  back  to  all 
its  former  afflictions,  in  the  days  of  the  Confederation.  I  know 
no  security  against  the  possibility  of  this  evil,  but  an  awakened 
nublic  vigilance.  I  know  no  safety,  but  in  that  state  of  public 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  213 

opinion  which  shall  lead  it  to  rebuke  and  put  down  every  at 
tempt,  either  to  gratify  party  by  judicial  appointments,  or  to 
dilute  the  Constitution  by  creating  a  court  which  shall  construe 
away  its  provisions.  If  members  of  Congress  betray  their  trust, 
the  people  will  find  it  out  before  they  are  ruined.  If  the  Presi 
dent  should  at  any  time  violate  his  duty,  his  term  of  office  is 
short,  and  popular  elections  may  supply  a  seasonable  remedy. 
But  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  possess,  for  very  good 
reasons,  an  independent  tenure  of  office.  No  election  reaches 
them.  If,  with  this  tenure,  they  betray  their  trusts,  Heaven  save 
us !  Let  us  hope  for  better  results.  The  past,  certainly,  may 
encourage  us.  Let  us  hope  that  we  shall  never  see  the  time 
when  there  shall  exist  such  an  awkward  posture  of  affairs,  as  that 
the  government  shall  be  found  in  opposition  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  when  the  guardians  of  the  Union  shall  become  its  be 
trayers. 

Gentlemen,  our  country  stands,  at  the  present  time,  on  com 
manding  ground.  Older  nations,  with  different  systems  of  gov 
ernment,  may  be  somewhat  slow  to  acknowledge  all  that  justly 
belongs  to  us.  But  we  may  feel  without  vanity,  that  America 
is  doing  her  part  in  the  great  work  of  improving  human  affairs. 
There  are  two  principles,  Gentlemen,  strictly  and  purely  Ameri 
can,  which  are  now  likely  to  prevail  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  Indeed,  they  seem  the  necessary  result  of  the  progress 
of  civilization  and  knowledge.  These  are,  first,  popular  govern 
ments,  restrained  by  written  constitutions;  and,  secondly,  uni 
versal  education.  Popular  governments  and  general  education, 
acting  and  reacting,  mutually  producing  and  reproducing  each 
other,  are  the  mighty  agencies  which  in  our  days  appear  to  be 
exciting,  stimulating,  and  changing  civilized  societies.  Man, 
everywhere,  is  now  found  demanding  a  participation  in  govern 
ment,  —  and  he  will  not  be  refused ;  and  he  demands  knowledge 
as  necessary  to  self-government.  On  the  basis  of  these  two 
principles,  liberty  and  knowledge,  our  own  American  systems 
rest.  Thus  far  we  have  not  been  disappointed  in  their  results. 
Our  existing  institutions,  raised  on  these  foundations,  have  con 
ferred  on  us  almost  unmixed  happiness.  Do  we  hope  to  better 
our  condition  by  change  ?  When  we  shall  have  nullified  the 
present  Constitution,  what  are  we  to  receive  in  its  place  ?  As 


214  PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK. 

fathers,  do  we  wish  for  our  children  better  government,  or  better 
laws  ?  As  members  of  society,  as  lovers  of  our  country,  is  there 
any  thing  we  can  desire  for  it  better  than  that,  as  ages  and  cen 
turies  roll  over  it,  it  may  possess  the  same  invaluable  institu 
tions  which  it  now  enjoys?  For  my  part,  Gentlemen,  1  can 
only  say,  that  I  desire  to  thank  the  beneficent  Author  of  ali 
good  for  being  bom  ivhere  I  was  born,  and  when  I  was  born ; 
that  the  portion  of  human  existence  allotted  to  me  has  been 
meted  out  to  me  in  this  goodly  land,  and  at  this  interesting 
period.  I  rejoice  that  I  have  lived  to  see  so  much  development 
of  truth,  so  much  progress  of  liberty,  so  much  diffusion  of  virtue 
and  happiness.  And,  through  good  report  and  evil  report,  it 
will  be  my  consolation  to  be  a  citizen  of  a  republic  unequalled 
in  the  annals  of  the  world  for  the  freedom  of  its  institutions,'  its 
high  prosperity,  and  the  prospects  of  good  which  yet  lie  before 
it.  Our  course,  Gentlemen,  is  onward,  straight  onward,  and 
forward.  Let  us  not  turn  to  the  right  hand,  nor  to  the  left. 
Our  path  is  marked  out  for  us,  clear,  plain,  bright,  distinctly 
defined,  like  the  milky  way  across  the  heavens.  If  we  are 
true  to  our  country,  in  our  day  and  generation,  and  those  who 
come  after  us  shall  be  true  to  it  also,  assuredly,  assuredly, 
we  shall  elevate  her  to  a  pitch  of  prosperity  and  happiness, 
of  honor  and  power,  never  yet  reached  by  any  nation  beneath 
the  sun. 

Gentlemen,  before  I  resume  my  seat,  a  highly  gratifying  duty 
remains  to  be  performed.  In  signifying  your  sentiments  of  re 
gard,  you  have  kindly  chosen  to  select  as  your  organ  for  ex 
pressing  them  the  eminent  person*  near  whom  I  stand.  I  feel, 
I  cannot  well  say  how  sensibly,  the  manner  in  which  he  has 
seen  fit  to  speak  on  this  occasion.  Gentlemen,  if  I  may  be 
supposed  to  have  made  any  attainment  in  the  knowledge  of 
constitutional  law,  he  is  among  the  masters  in  whose  schools  I 
have  been  taught.  You  see  near  him  a  distinguished  magis 
trate,!  long  associated  with  him  in  judicial  labors,  which  have 
conferred  lasting  benefits  and  lasting  character,  not  only  on  the 
State,  but  on  the  whole  country.  Gentlemen,  I  acknowledge 
myself  much  then*  debtor.  While  yet  a  y  puth,  unknown,  and 
with  little  expectation  of  becoming  known  beyond  a  very  lim- 

*  Chancellor  Kent,  the  presiding  officer.  f  Judge  Spencer 


PUBLIC  DINNER  AT  NEW  YORK.  215 

fted  circle,  I  have  passed  days  and  nights,  not  of  tedious,  but  of 
happy  and  gratified  labor,  in  the  study  of  the  judicature  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  I  am  most  happy  to  have  this  public  op 
portunity  of  acknowledging  the  obligation,  and  of  repaying  it 
as  far  as  it  can  be  repaid,  by  the  poor  tribute  of  my  profound 
regard,  and  the  earnest  expression  of  my  sincere  respect. 

Gentlemen,  I  will  no  longer  detain  you  than  to  propose  a 
toast :  — 

The  City  of  New  York ;  herself  the  noblest  eulogy  on  the 
Union  of  the  States. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 


VOL.  I.  19 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON/ 


ON  the  22d  cf  February,  1832,  being  the  centennial  birthday  of 
GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  a  number  of  gentlemen,  members  of  Congress 
and  others,  from  different  parts  of  the  Union,  united  in  commemorating 
the  occasion  by  a  public  dinner  in  the  city  of  Washington. 

At  the  request  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  Mr.  Webster,  then 
a  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  occupied  the  chair.  After  the  cloth  was 
removed,  he  addressed  the  company  in  the  following  manner :  — 

I  RISE,  Gentlemen,  to  propose  to  you  the  name  of  that  great 
man,  in  commemoration  of  whose  birth,  and  in  honor  of  whose 
character  and  services,  we  are  here  assembled. 

I  am  sure  that  I  express  a  sentiment  common  to  every  one 
present,  when  I  say  that  there  is  something  more  than  ordinarily 
solemn  and  affecting  in  this  occasion. 

We  are  met  to  testify  our  regard  for  him  whose  name  is 
intimately  blended  with  whatever  belongs  most  essentially  to 
the  prosperity,  the  liberty,  the  free  institutions,  and  the  renown 
of  our  country.  That  name  was  of  power  to  rally  a  nation,  in 
the  hour  of  thick-thronging  public  disasters  and  calamities ;  that 
name  shone,  amid  the  storm  of  war,  a  beacon  light,  to  cheer  and 
guide  the  country's  friend?;  it  flamed,  too,  like  a  meteor,  to 
repel  her  foes.  That  name,  in  the  days  of  peace,  was  a  load 
stone,  attracting  to  itself  a  whole  people's  confidence,  a  whole 
people's  love,  and  the  whole  world's  respect.  That  name,  de 
scending  with  all  time,  spreading  over  the  whole  earth,  and 
uttered  in  all  the  languages  belonging  to  the  tribes  and  races  of 
men,  will  for  ever  be  pronounced  with  affectionate  gratitude  by 

*  A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  in  Honor  of  the  Centennial  Birthday 
of  Washington,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1832. 


220  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

every  one  in  whose  breast  there  shall  arise  an  aspiration  for  hu 
man  rights  and  human  liberty. 

We  perform  this  grateful  duty,  Gentlemen,  at  the  expiration 
of  a  hundred  years  from  his  birth,  near  the  place,  so  cherished 
and  beloved  by  him,  where  his  dust  now  reposes,  and  in  the  cap 
ital  which  bears  his  own  immortal  name. 

All  experience  evinces  that  human  sentiments  are  strongly 
influenced  by  associations.  The  recurrence  of  anniversaries,  or 
of  longer  periods  of  time,  naturally  freshens  the  recollection,  and 
deepens  the  impression,  of  events  with  which  they  are  histori 
cally  connected.  Renowned  places,  also,  have  a  power  to  awa 
ken  feeling,  which  all  acknowledge.  No  American  can  pass  by 
the  fields  of  Bunker  Hill,  Monmouth,  and  Camden,  as  if  they 
were  ordinary  spots  on  the  earth's  surface.  Whoever  visits  them 
feels  the  sentiment  of  love  of  country  kindling  anew,  as  if  the 
spirit  that  belonged  to  the  transactions  which  have  rendered 
these  places  distinguished  still  hovered  round,  with  power  to 
move  and  excite  all  who  in  future  time  may  approach  them. 

But  neither  of  these  sources  of  emotion  equals  the  power  with 
which  great  moral  examples  affect  the  mind.  When  sublime 
virtues  cease  to  be  abstractions,  when  they  become  embodied 
in  human  character,  and  exemplified  in  human  conduct,  we 
should  be  false  to  our  own  nature,  if  we  did  not  indulge  in  the 
spontaneous  effusions  of  our  gratitude  and  our  admiration,  A 
true  lover  of  the  virtue  of  patriotism  delights  to  contemplate  its 
purest  models ;  and  that  love  of  country  may  be  well  suspected 
which  affects  to  soar  so  high  into  the  regions  of  sentiment  as  to 
be  lost  and  absorbed  in  the  abstract  feeling,  and  becomes  too 
elevated  or  too  refined  to  glow  with  fervor  in  the  commendation 
or  the  love  of  individual  benefactors.  All  this  is  unnatural.  It 
is  as  if  one  should  be  so  enthusiastic  a  lover  of  poetry,  as  to  care 
nothing  for  Homer  or  Milton ;  so  passionately  attached  to  elo 
quence  as  to  be  indifferent  to  Tully  and  Chatham ;  or  such  a 
devotee  to  the  arts,  in  such  an  ecstasy  with  the  elements  of 
beauty,  proportion,  and  expression,  as  to  regard  the  master 
pieces  of  Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo  with  coldness  or  con 
tempt.  We  may  be  assured,  Gentlemen,  that  he  who  really 
loves  the  thing  itself,  loves  its  finest  exhibitions.  A  true  friend 
of  his  country  loves  her  friends  and  benefactors,  and  thinks  it  no 
degradation  to  commend  and  commemorate  them.  The  volun- 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  221 

tary  outpouring  of  the  public  feeling,  made  to-day,  from  the 
North  to  the  South,  and  from  the  East  to  the  West,  proves  this 
sentiment  to  be  both  just  and  natural.  In  the  cities  and  in  the 
villages,  in  the  public  temples  and  in  the  family  circles,  among 
all  ages  and  sexes,  gladdened  voices  to-day  bespeak  grateful 
hearts  and  a  freshened  recollection  of  the  virtues  of  the  Father 
of  his  Country.  And  it  will  be  so,  in  all  time  to  come,  so  long 
as  public  virtue  is  itself  an  object  of  regard.  The  ingenuous 
youth  of  America  will  hold  up  to  themselves  the  bright  model 
of  Washington's  example,  and  study  to  be  what  they  behold ; 
they  will  contemplate  his  character  till  all  its  virtues  spread  out 
and  display  themselves  to  their  delighted  vision ;  as  the  earliest 
astronomers,  the  shepherds  on  the  plains  of  Babylon,  gazed  at 
the  stars  till  they  saw  them  form  into  clusters  and  constellations, 
overpowering  at  length  the  eyes  of  the  beholders  with  the  united 
blaze  of  a  thousand  lights. 

Gentlemen,  we  are  at  the  point  of  a  century  from  the  birth  of 
Washington ;  and  what  a  century  it  has  been !  During  its 
course,  the  human  mind  has  seemed  to  proceed  with  a  sort  of 
geometric  velocity,  accomplishing,  for  human  intelligence  and 
human  freedom,  more  than  had  been  done  in  fives  or  tens  of 
centuries  preceding.  Washington  stands  at  the  commencement 
of  a  new  era,  as  well  as  at  the  head  of  the  New  World.  A  cen 
tury  from  the  birth  of  Washington  has  changed  the  world.  The 
country  of  Washington  has  been  the  theatre  on  which  a  great 
part  of  that  change  has  been  wrought;  and  Washington  himself 
a  principal  agent  by  which  it  has  been  accomplished.  His  age 
and  his  country  are  equally  full  of  wonders ;  and  of  both  he  is 
the  chief. 

If  the   poetical   prediction,  uttered   a  few  years   before   his 
birth,  be  true ;  if  indeed  it  be  designed  by  Providence  that  the 
grandest  exhibition  of  human  character  and  human  affairs  shall 
be  made  on  this  theatre  of  the  Western  world ;  if  it  be  true  that, 
"  The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  of  the  day ; 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last "; 

how  could  this  imposing,  swelling,  final  scene  be  appropriately 
opened,  how  could  its  intense  interest  be  adequately  sustained, 
but  by  the  introduction  of  just  such  a  character  as  our  Wash 
ington  ? 

19* 


222  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

Washington  had  attained  his  manhood  when  that  spark  of  lib* 
erty  was  struck  out  in  his  own  country,  which  has  since  kindled 
into  a  flame,  and  shot  its  beams  over  the  earth.  In  the  flow  of 
a  century  from  his  birth,  the  world  has  changed  in  science,  in 
arts,  in  the  extent  of  commerce,  in  the  improvement  of  naviga 
tion,  and  in  all  that  relates  to  the  civilization  of  man.  But  it  is 
the  spirit  of  human  freedom,  the  new  elevation  of  individual 
man,  in  his  moral,  social,  and  political  character,  leading  the 
whole  long  train  of  other  improvements,  which  has  most  re 
markably  distinguished  the  era.  Society,  in  this  century,  has 
not  made  its  progress,  like  Chinese  skill,  by  a  greater  acuteness 
of  ingenuity  in  trifles ;  it  has  not  merely  lashed  itself  to  an  in 
creased  speed  round  the  old  circles  of  thought  and  action ;  but 
it  has  assumed  a  new  character ;  it  has  raised  itself  from  beneath 
governments  to  a  participation  in  governments ;  it  has  mixed 
moral  and  political  objects  with  the  daily  pursuits  of  individual 
men ;  and,  with  a  freedom  and  strength  before  altogether  un 
known,  it  has  applied  to  these  objects  the  whole  power  of  the 
human  understanding.  It  has  been  the  era,  in  short,  when  the 
social  principle  has  triumphed  over  the  feudal  principle ;  when 
society  has  maintained  its  rights  against  military  power,  and 
established,  on  foundations  never  hereafter  to  be  shaken,  its  com 
petency  to  govern  itself. 

It  was  the  extraordinary  fortune  of  Washington,  that,  having 
been  intrusted,  in  revolutionary  times,  with  the  supreme  military 
command,  and  having  fulfilled  that  trust  with  equal  renown  for 
wisdom  and  for  valor,  he  should  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
first  government  in  which  an  attempt  was  to  be  made  on  a  large 
scale  to  rear  the  fabric  of  social  order  on  the  basis  of  a  written 
constitution  and  of  a  pure  representative  principle.  A  govern 
ment  was  to  be  established,  without  a  throne,  without  an  aris 
tocracy,  without  castes,  orders,  or  privileges ;  and  this  govern 
ment,  instead  of  being  a  democracy,  existing  and  acting  within 
the  walls  of  a  single  city,  was  to  be  extended  over  a  vast  coun 
try,  of  different  climates,  interests,  and  habits,  and  of  various 
communions  of  our  common  Christian  faith.  The  experiment 
certainly  was  entirely  new.  A  popular  government  of  this  ex 
tent,  it  was  evident,  could  be  framed  only  by  carrying  into  full 
effect  the  principle  of  representation  or  of  delegated  power ;  and 
the  world  was  to  see  whether  society  could,  by  the  strength  of 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  223 

this  principle,  maintain  its  own  peace  and  good  government, 
carry  forward  its  own  great  interests,  and  conduct  itself  to  politi 
cal  renown  and  glory.  By  the  benignity  of  Providence,  this  ex 
periment,  so  full  of  interest  to  us  and  to  our  posterity  for  ever,  so 
full  of  interest,  indeed,  to  the  world  in  its  present  generation  and  in 
all  its  generations  to  come,  was  suffered  to  commence  under  the 
guidance  of  Washington.  Destined  for  this  high  career,  he  was 
fitted  for  it  by  wisdom,  by  virtue,  by  patriotism,  by  discretion,  by 
whatever  can  inspire  confidence  in  man  toward  man.  In  enter 
ing  on  the  untried  scenes,  early  disappointment  and  the  prema 
ture  extinction  of  all  hope  of  success  would  have  been  certain, 
had  it  not  been  that  there  did  exist  throughout  the  country,  in  a 
most  extraordinary  degree,  an  unwavering  trust  in  him  who 
stood  at  the  helm. 

I  remarked,  Gentlemen,  that  the  whole  world  was  and  is  inter 
ested  in  the  result  of  this  experiment.  And  is  it  not  so  ?  Do 
we  deceive  ourselves,  or  is  it  true  that  at  this  moment  the  career 
which  this  government  is  running  is  among  the  most  attractive 
objects  to  the  civilized  world  ?  Do  we  deceive  ourselves,  or  is  it 
true  that  at  this  moment  that  love  of  liberty  and  that  under 
standing  of  its  true  principles  which  are  flying  over  the  whole 
earth,  as  on  the  wings  of  all  the  winds,  are  really  and  truly  of 
American  origin  ? 

At  the  period  of  the  birth  of  Washington,  there  existed  in 
Europe  no  political  liberty  in  large  communities,  except  in  the 
provinces  of  Holland,  and  except  that  England  herself  had  set 
a  great  example,  so  far  as  it  went,  by  her  glorious  Revolution  of 
1688.  Everywhere  else,  despotic  power  was  predominant,  and 
the  feudal  or  military  principle  held  the  mass  of  mankind  in 
hopeless  bondage.  One  half  of  Europe  was  crushed  beneath 
the  Bourbon  sceptre,  and  no  conception  of  political  liberty,  no 
hope  even  of  religious  toleration,  existed  among  that  nation 
which  was  America's  first  ally.  The  king  was  the  state,  the 
king  was  the  country,  the  king  was  all.  There  was  one  king, 
with  power  not  derived  from  his  people,  and  too  high  to  be 
questioned ;  and  the  rest  were  all  subjects,  with  no  political  right 
but  obedience.  All  above  was  intangible  power,  all  below 
quiet  subjection.  A  recent  occurrence  in  the  French  Chambers 
shows  us  how  public  opinion  on  these  subjects  is  changed.  A 
minister  had  spoken  of  the  "  king's  subjects."  "  There  are  no 


224  THE   CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

subjects,"  exclaimed  hundreds  of  voices  at  once,  "  in  &   country 
where  the  people  make  the  king ! " 

Gentlemen,  the  spirit  of  human  liberty  and  of  free  govern 
ment,  nurtured  and  grown  into  strength  and  beauty  in  America, 
has  stretched  its  course  into  the  midst  of  the  nations.  Like  an 
emanation  from  Heaven,  it  has  gone  forth,  and  it  will  not  return 
void.  It  must  change,  it  is  fast  changing,  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Our  great,  our  high  duty  is  to  show,  in  our  own  example,  that 
this  spirit  is  a  spirit  of  health  as  well  as  a  spirit  of  power ;  that 
its  benignity  is  as  great  as  its  strength ;  that  its  efficiency  to  se 
cure  individual  rights,  social  relations,  and  moral  order,  is  equal 
to  the  irresistible  force  with  which  it  prostrates  principalities  and 
powers.  The  world,  at  this  moment,  is  regarding  us  with  a 
willing,  but  something  of  a  fearful  admiration.  Its  deep  and 
awful  anxiety  is  to  learn  whether  free  states  may  be  stable,  as 
well  as  free ;  whether  popular  power  may  be  trusted,  as  well 
as  feared ;  in  short,  whether  wise,  regular,  and  virtuous  self- 
government  is  a  vision  for  the  contemplation  of  theorists,  or  a 
truth  established,  illustrated,  and  brought  into  practice  in  the 
country  of  Washington. 

Gentlemen,  for  the  earth  which  we  inhabit,  and  the  whole  cir 
cle  of  the  sun,  for  all  the  unborn  races  of  mankind,  we  seem  to 
hold  in  our  hands,  for  their  weal  or  woe,  the  fate  of  this  experi 
ment.  If  we  fail,  who  shall  venture  the  repetition  ?  If  our  ex 
ample  shall  prove  to  be  one,  not  of  encouragement,  but  of  terror, 
not  fit  to  be  imitated,  but  fit  only  to  be  shunned,  where  else 
shall  the  world  look  for  free  models  ?  If  this  great  Western  Sun 
be  struck  out  of  the  firmament,  at  what  other  fountain  shall  the 
lamp  of  liberty  hereafter  be  lighted?  What  other  orb  shall  emit 
a  ray  to  glimmer,  even,  on  the  darkness  of  the  world  ? 

There  is  no  danger  of  our  overrating  or  overstating  the  impor 
tant  part  which  we  are  now  acting  in  human  affairs.  It  should 
not  flatter  our  personal  self-respect,  but  it  should  reanimate  our 
patriotic  virtues,  and  inspire  us  with  a  deeper  and  more  solemn 
sense,  both  of  our  privileges  and  of  our  duties.  We  cannot 
wish  better  for  our  country,  nor  for  the  world,  than  that  the 
same  spirit  which  influenced  Washington  may  influence  all 
who  succeed  him;  and  that  the  same  blessing  from  above, 
which  attended  his  efforts,  may  also  attend  theirs. 

The  principles  of  Washington's  administration  are  not  left 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  225 

doubtful.  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution  itself,  in 
the  great  measures  recommended  and  approved  by  him,  in  his 
speeches  to  Congress,  and  in  that  most  interesting  paper,  his 
Farewell  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States.  The  suc 
cess  of  the  government  under  his  administration  is  the  highest 
proof  of  the  soundness  of  these  principles.  And,  after  an  expe 
rience  of  thirty-five  years,  what  is  there  which  an  enemy  could 
condemn?  What  is  there  which  either  his  friends,  or  the  friends 
of  the  country,  could  wish  to  have  been  otherwise  ?  I  speak,  of 
course,  of  great  measures  and  leading  principles. 

In  the  first  place,  all  his  measures  were  right  in  their  intent. 
He  stated  the  whole  basis  of  his  own  great  character,  when  he 
told  the  country,  in  the  homely  phrase  of  the  proverb,  that  hon 
esty  is  the  best  policy.  One  of  the  most  striking  things  ever 
said  of  him  is,  that  "he  changed  mankind's  ideas  of  political 
greatness" *  To  commanding  talents,  and  to  success,  the  com 
mon  elements  of  such  greatness,  he  added  a  disregard  of  self,  a 
spotlessness  of  motive,  a  steady  submission  to  every  public  and 
private  duty,  which  threw  far  into  the  shade  the  whole  crowd  of 
vulgar  great.  The  object  of  his  regard  was  the  whole  country. 
No  part  of  it  was  enough  to  fill  his  enlarged  patriotism.  His 
love  of  glory,  so  far  as  that  may  be  supposed  to  have  influenced 
him  at  all,  spurned  every  thing  short  of  general  approbation.  It 
would  have  been  nothing  to  him,  that  his  partisans  or  his  favor 
ites  outnumbered,  or  outvoted,  or  outmanaged,  or  outclamored, 
those  of  other  leaders.  He  had  no  favorites ;  he  rejected  all  par 
tisanship  ;  and,  acting  honestly  for  the  universal  good,  he  de 
served,  what  he  has  so  richly  enjoyed,  the  universal  love. 

His  principle  it  was  to  act  right,  and  to  trust  the  people  for 
support ;  his  principle  it  was  not  to  follow  the  lead,  of  sinister 
and  selfish  ends,  nor  to  rely  on  the  little  arts  of  party  delusion 
to  obtain  public  sanction  for  such  a  course.  Bom  for  his  coun 
try  and  for  the  world,  he  did  not  give  up  to  party  what  was 
meant  for  mankind.  The  consequence  is,  that  his  fame  is  as 
durable  as  his  principles,  as  lasting  as  truth  and  virtue  them 
selves.  While  the  hundreds  whom  party  excitement,  and  tem 
porary  circumstances,  and  casual  combinations,  have  raised  into 
transient  notoriety,  sink  again,  like  thin  bubbles,  bursting  and 

*  See  Works  of  Fisher  Ames,  pp.  122,  123. 


226  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

dissolving  into  the  great  ocean,  Washington's  fame  is  like  the 
rock  which  bounds  that  ocean,  and  at  whose  feet  its  billows  are 
destined  to  break  harmlessly  for  ever. 

The  maxims  upon  which  Washington  conducted  our  foreign 
relations  were  few  and  simple.  The  first  was  an  entire  and  in 
disputable  impartiality  towards  foreign  states.  He  adhered  to 
this  rule  of  public  conduct,  against  very  strong  inducements  to 
depart  from  it,  and  when  the  popularity  of  the  moment  seemed 
to  favor  such  a  departure.  In  the  next  place,  he  maintained 
true  dignity  and  unsullied  honor  in  all  communications  with 
foreign  states.  It  was  among  the  high  duties  devolved  upon 
him,  to  introduce  our  new  government  into  the  circle  of  civilized 
states  and  powerful  nations.  Not  arrogant  or  assuming,  with 
no  unbecoming  or  supercilious  bearing,  he  yet  exacted  for  it 
from  all  others  entire  and  punctilious  respect.  He  demanded, 
and  he  obtained  at  once,  a  standing  of  perfect  equality  for  his 
country  in  the  society  of  nations ;  nor  was  there  a  prince  or  po 
tentate  of  his  day,  whose  personal  character  carried  with  it,  into 
the  intercourse  of  other  states,  a  greater  degree  of  respect  and 
veneration. 

He  regarded  other  nations  only  as  they  stood  in  political  rela 
tions  to  us.  With  their  internal  affairs,  their  political  parties 
and  dissensions,  he  scrupulously  abstained  from  all  interference ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  repelled  with  spirit  all  such  interfer 
ence  by  others  with  us  or  our  concerns.  His  sternest  rebuke, 
the  most  indignant  measure  of  his  whole  administration,  was 
aimed  against  such  an  attempted  interference.  He  felt  it  as  an 
attempt  to  wound  the  national  honor,  and  resented  it  accord 
ingly. 

The  reiterated  admonitions  in  his  Farewell  Address  show  his 
deep  fears  that  foreign  influence  would  insinuate  itself  into  our 
counsels  through  the  channels  of  domestic  dissension,  and  ob 
tain  a  sympathy  with  our  own  temporary  parties.  Against  all 
such  dangers,  he  most  earnestly  entreats  the  country  to  guard 
itself.  He  appeals  to  its  patriotism,  to  its  self-respect,  to  its 
own  honor,  to  every  consideration  connected  with  its  welfare 
and  happiness,  to  resist,  at  the  very  beginning,  all  tendencies  to 
wards  such  connection  of  foreign  interests  with  our  own  affairs. 
With  a  tone  of  earnestness  nowhere  else  found,  even  in  his  last 
affectionate  farewell  advice  to  his  countrymen,  he  says,  u  Against 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  227 

the  insidious  wiles  of  foreign  influence,  (I  conjure  you  to  believe 
me,  fellow-citizens,)  the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be 
constantly  awake ;  since  history  and  experience  prove,  that  for 
eign  influence  is  one  of  the  most  baneful  foes  of  republican 
government." 

Lastly,  on  the  subject  of  foreign  relations,  Washington  never 
forgot  that  we  had  interests  peculiar  to  ourselves.  The  primary 
political  concerns  of  Europe,  he  saw,  did  not  affect  us.  We  had 
nothing  to  do  with  her  balance  of  power,  her  family  compacts, 
or  her  successions  to  thrones.  We  were  placed  in  a  condition 
favorable  to  neutrality  during  European  wars,  and  to  the  enjoy 
ment  of  all  the  great  advantages  of  that  relation.  "  Why,  then," 
he  asks  us,  "  why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a  situa 
tion  ?  Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground  ?  Why, 
by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of  Europe, 
entangle  our  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  European  am 
bition,  rivalship,  interest,  humor,  or  caprice  ?  " 

Indeed,  Gentlemen,  Washington's  Farewell  Address  is  full 
of  truths  important  at  all  times,  and  particularly  deserving  con 
sideration  at  the  present,  With  a  sagacity  which  brought  the 
future  before  him,  and  made  it  like  the  present,  he  saw  and 
pointed  out  the  dangers  that  even  at  this  moment  most  immi 
nently  threaten  us.  I  hardly  know  how  a  greater  service  of  that 
kind  could  now  be  done  to  the  community,  than  by  a  renewed 
and  wide  diffusion  of  that  admirable  paper,  and  an  earnest  invi 
tation  to  every  man  in  the  country  to  reperuse  and  consider  it. 
Its  political  maxims  are  invaluable ;  its  exhortations  to  love  of 
country  and  to  brotherly  affection  among  citizens,  touching; 
and  the  solemnity  with  which  it  urges  the  observance  of  moral 
duties,  and  impresses  the  power  of  religious  obligation,  gives  to 
it  the  highest  character  of  truly  disinterested,  sincere,  parental 
advice. 

The  domestic  policy  of  Washington  found  its  pole-star  in  the 
avowed  objects  of  the  Constitution  itself.  He  sought  so  to 
administer  that  Constitution,  as  to  form  a  more  perfect  union, 
establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the 
common  defence,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty.  These  were  objects  interesting,  in  the  high 
est  degree,  to  the  whole  country,  and  his  policy  embraced  the 
whole  country. 


228  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

Among  his  earliest  and  most  important  duties  was  the  or 
ganization  of  the  government  itself,  the  choice  of  his  confiden 
tial  advisers,  and  the  various  appointments  to  office.  This 
duty,  so  important  and  delicate,  when  a  whole  government  was 
to  be  organized,  and  all  its  offices  for  the  first  time  filled,  was 
yet  not  difficult  to  him ;  for  he  had  no  sinister  ends  to  accom 
plish,  no  clamorous  partisans  to  gratify,  no  pledges  to  redeem, 
no  object  to  be  regarded  but  simply  the  public  good.  It  was  a 
plain,  straightforward  matter,  a  mere  honest  choice  of  good  men 
for  the  public  service. 

His  own  singleness  of  purpose,  his  disinterested  patriotism, 
were  evinced  by  the  selection  of  his  first  cabinet,  and  by  the 
manner  in  which  he  filled  the  seats  of  justice,  and  other  places 
of  high  trust.  He  sought  for  men  fit  for  offices ;  not  for  offices 
which  might  suit  men.  Above  personal  considerations,  above 
local  considerations,  above  party  considerations,  he  felt  that  he 
could  only  discharge  the  sacred  trust  which  the  country  had 
placed  in  his  hands,  by  a  diligent  inquiry  after  real  merit,  and  a 
conscientious  preference  of  virtue  and  talent.  The  whole  coun 
try  was  the  field  of  his  selection.  He  explored  that  whole  field, 
looking  only  for  whatever  it  contained  most  worthy  and  distin 
guished.  He  was,  indeed,  most  successful,  and  he  deserved  suc 
cess  for  the  purity  of  his  motives,  the  liberality  of  his  sentiments, 
and  his  enlarged  and  manly  policy. 

Washington's  administration  established  the  national  credit, 
made  provision  for  the  public  debt,  and  for  that  patriotic  army 
whose  interests  and  welfare  were  always  so  dear  to  him ;  and, 
by  laws  wisely  framed,  and  of  admirable  effect,  raised  the  com 
merce  and  navigation  of  the  country,  almost  at  once,  from  de 
pression  and  ruin  to  a  state  of  prosperity.  Nor  were  his  eyes 
open  to  these  interests  alone.  He  viewed  with  equal  concern  its 
agriculture  and  manufactures,  and,  so  far  as  they  came  within 
the  regular  exercise  of  the  powers  of  this  government,  they  ex 
perienced  regard  and  favor. 

It  should  not  be  omitted,  even  in  this  slight  reference  to  the 
general  measures  and  general  principles  of  the  first  President, 
that  he  saw  and  felt  the  full  value  and  importance  of  the  judi 
cial  department  of  the  government.  An  upright  and  able  ad 
ministration  of  the  laws  he  held  to  be  alike  indispensable  to  pri 
vate  happiness  and  public  liberty.  The  temple  of  justice,  in  his 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  229 

opinion,  was  a  sacred  place,  and  he  would  profane  and  pollute 
it  who  should  call  any  to  minister  in  it,  not  spotless  in  char 
acter,  not  incorruptible  in  integrity,  not  competent  by  talent  and 
learning,  not  a  fit  object  of  unhesitating  trust. 

Among  other  admonitions,  Washington  has  left  us,  in  his 
last  communication  to  his  country,  an  exhortation  against  the 
excesses  of  party  spirit.  A  fire  not  to  be  quenched,  he  yet  con 
jures  us  not  to  fan  and  feed  the  flame.  Undoubtedly,  Gentle 
men,  it  is  the  greatest  danger  of  our  system  and  of  our  time. 
Undoubtedly,  if  that  system  should  be  overthrown,  it  will  be 
the  work  of  excessive  party  spirit,  acting  on  the  government, 
which  is  dangerous  enough,  or  acting  in  the  government,  which 
is  a  thousand  times  more  dangerous ;  for  government  then  be 
comes  nothing  but  organized  party,  and,  in  the  strange  vicissi 
tudes  of  human  affairs,  it  may  come  at  last,  perhaps,  to  exhibit 
the  singular  paradox  of  government  itself  being  in  opposition 
to  its  own  powers,  at  war  with  the  very  elements  of  its  own 
existence.  Such  cases  are  hopeless.  As  men  may  be  protected 
against  murder,  but  cannot  be  guarded  against  suicide,  so  gov 
ernment  may  be  shielded  from  the  assaults  of  external  foes,  but 
nothing  can  save  it  when  it  chooses  to  lay  violent  hands  on 
itself. 

Finally,  Gentlemen,  there  was  in  the  breast  of  Washington 
one  sentiment  so  deeply  felt,  so  constantly  uppermost,  that  no 
proper  occasion  escaped  without  its  utterance.  From  the  letter 
which  he  signed  in  behalf  of  the  Convention  when  the  Consti 
tution  was  sent  out  to  the  people,  to  the  moment  when  he  put  his 
hand  to  that  last  paper  in  which  he  addressed  his  countrymen, 
the  Union,  —  the  Union  was  the  great  object  of  his  thoughts. 
In  that  first  letter  he  tells  them  that,  to  him  and  his  brethren 
of  the  Convention,  union  appears  to  be  the  greatest  interest  of 
every  true  American ;  and  in  that  last  paper  he  conjures  them 
to  regard  that  unity  of  government  which  constitutes  them  one 
people  as  the  very  palladium  of  their  prosperity  and  safety,  arid 
the  security  of  liberty  itself.  He  regarded  the  union  of  these 
States  less  as  one  of  our  blessings,  than  as  the  great  treasure- 
house  which  contained  them  all.  Here,  in  his  judgment,  was  the 
great  magazine  of  all  our  means  of  prosperity;  here,  as  he 
thought,  and  as  every  true  American  still  thinks,  are  deposited  all 
our  animating  prospects,  all  our  solid  hopes  for  future  greatness. 

VOL.  i.  20 


230  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

He  has  taught  us  to  maintain  this  union,  not  by  seeking  to 
enlarge  the  powers  of  the  government,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  by 
surrendering  them,  on  the  other;  but  by  an  administration  of 
them  at  once  firm  and  moderate,  pursuing  objects  truly  national, 
and  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  equity. 

The  extreme  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  at 
all  times  manifested  by  him,  shows  not  only  the  opinion  he  en 
tertained  of  its  importance,  but  his  clear  perception  of  those 
causes  which  were  likely  to  spring  up  to  endanger  it,  and  which, 
if  once  they  should  overthrow  the  present  system,  would  leave 
little  hope  of  any  future  beneficial  reunion.  Of  all  the  pre 
sumptions  indulged  by  presumptuous  man,  that  is  one  of  the 
rashest  which  looks  for  repeated  and  favorable  opportunities  for 
the  deliberate  establishment  of  a  united  government  over  dis 
tinct  and  widely  extended  communities.  Such  a  thing  has  hap 
pened  once  in  human  affairs,  and  but  once ;  the  event  stands 
out  as  a  prominent  exception  to  all  ordinary  history ;  and  unless 
we  suppose  ourselves  running  into  an  age  of  miracles,  we  may 
not  expect  its  repetition. 

Washington,  therefore,  could  regard,  and  did  regard,  nothing 
as  of  paramount  political  interest,  but  the  integrity  of  the  Union 
itself.  With  a  united  government,  well  administered,  he  saw 
that  we  had  nothing  to  fear ;  and  without  it,  nothing  to  hope. 
The  sentiment  is  just,  and  its  momentous  truth  should  solemnly 
impress  the  whole  country.  If  we  might  regard  our  country  as 
personated  in  the  spirit  of  Washington,  if  we  might  consider 
him  as  representing  her,  in  her  past  renown,  her  present  pros 
perity,  and  her  future  career,  and  as  in  that  character  demand 
ing  of  us  all  to  account  for  our  conduct,  as  political  men  or  as 
private  citizens,  how  should  he  answer  him  who  has  ventured 
to  talk  of  disunion  and  dismemberment?  Or  how  should  he 
answer  him  who  dwells  perpetually  on  local  interests,  and  fans 
every  kindling  flame  of  local  prejudice  ?  How  should  he  answer 
him  who  would  array  State  against  State,  interest  against  in 
terest,  and  party  against  party,  careless  of  the  continuance  of 
that  unity  of  government  which  constitutes  us  one  people  ? 

The  political  prosperity  which  this  country  has  attained,  and 
which  it  now  enjoys,  has  been  acquired  mainly  through  the  in 
strumentality  of  the  present  government.  While  this  agent 
continues,  the  capacity  of  attaining  to  still  higher  degrees  of 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  231 

prosperity  exists  also.  We  have,  while  this  lasts,  a  political 
life  capable  of  beneficial  exertion,  with  power  to  resist  or  over 
come  misfortunes,  to  sustain  us  against  the  ordinary  accidents 
of  human  affairs,  and  to  promote,  by  active  efforts,  every  public 
interest.  But  dismemberment  strikes  at  the  very  being  which 
preserves  these  faculties.  It  would  lay  its  rude  and  ruthless 
hand  on  this  great  agent  itself.  It  would  sweep  away,  not  only 
what  we  possess,  but  all  power  of  regaining  lost,  or  acquiring 
new  possessions.  It  would  leave  the  country,  not  only  bereft 
of  its  prosperity  and  happiness,  but  without  limbs,  or  organs,  or 
faculties,  by  which  to  exert  itself  hereafter  in  the  pursuit  of  that 
prosperity  and  happiness. 

Other  misfortunes  may  be  borne,  or  their  effects  overcome. 
If  disastrous  war  should  sweep  our  commerce  from  the  ocean, 
another  generation  may  renew  it;  if  it  exhaust  our  treasury, 
future  industry  may  replenish  it ;  if  it  desolate  and  lay  waste 
our  fields,  still,  under  a  new  cultivation,  they  will  grow  green 
again,  and  ripen  to  future  harvests.  It  were  but  a  trifle  even 
if  the  walls  of  yonder  Capitol  were  to  crumble,  if  its  lofty  pil 
lars  should  fall,  and  its  gorgeous  decorations  be  all  covered  by 
the  dust  of  the  valley.  All  these  might  be  rebuilt.  But  who 
shall  reconstruct  the  fabric  of  demolished  government  ?  Who 
shall  rear  again  the  well-proportioned  columns  of  constitutional 
liberty  ?  Who  shall  frame  together  the  skilful  architecture  which 
unites  national  sovereignty  with  State  rights,  individual  secu 
rity,  and  public  prosperity  ?  No,  if  these  columns  fall,  they  will 
be  raised  not  again.  Like  the  Coliseum  and  the  Parthenon, 
they  will  be  destined  to  a  mournful,  a  melancholy  immortality. 
Bitterer  tears,  however,  will  flow  over  them,  than  were  ever  shed 
over  the  monuments  of  Roman  or  Grecian  art ;  for  they  will  be 
the  remnants  of  a  more  glorious  edifice  than  Greece  or  Rome 
ever  saw,  the  edifice  of  constitutional  American  liberty. 

But  let  us  hope  for  better  things.  Let  us  trust  in  that  gra 
cious  Being  who  has  hitherto  held  our  country  as  in  the  hollow 
of  his  hand.  Let  us  trust  to  the  virtue  and  the  intelligence  of 
the  people,  and  to  the  efficacy  of  religious  obligation.  Let  us 
trust  to  the  influence  of  Washington's  example.  Let  us  hope 
that  that  fear  of  Heaven  which  expels  all  other  fear,  and  that 
regard  to  duty  which  transcends  all  other  regard,  may  influence 
public  men  and  private  citizens,  and  lead  our  country  still  on- 


232  THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON. 

ward  in  her  happy  career.  Full  of  these  gratifying  anticipations 
and  hopes,  let  us  look  forward  to  the  end  of  that  century  which 
is  now  commenced.  A  hundred  years  hence,  other  disciples  of 
Washington  will  celebrate  his  birth,  with  no  less  of  sincere  ad 
miration  than  we  now  commemorate  it.  When  they  shall  meet, 
as  we  now  meet,  to  do  themselves  and  him  that  honor,  so  surely 
as  they  shall  see  the  blue  summits  of  his  native  mountains  rise 
in  the  horizon,  so  surely  as  they  shall  behold  the  river  on  whose 
banks  he  lived,  and  on  whose  banks  he  rests,  still  flowing  on 
toward  the  sea,  so  surely  may  they  see,  as  we  now  see,  the  flag 
of  the  Union  floating  on  the  top  of  the  Capitol ;  and  then,  as 
now,  may  the  sun  in  his  course  visit  no  land  more  free,  more 
happy,  more  lovely,  than  this  our  own  country ! 

Gentlemen,  I  propose  —  "THE   MEMORY  OF  GEORGE  WASH 
INGTON." 


From  the  excellent  speeches  delivered  by  gentlemen  on  this  interest 
ing  occasion,  we  cannot  refrain  from  selecting  for  this  publication,  though 
a  little  out  of  place,  the  appropriate,  just,  and  classic  remarks  of  Mr. 
Robbins. 

Mr.  Webster  having  retired,  Mr.  Chambers,  being  in  the  chair,  called 
upon  Mr.  Robbins  of  Rhode  Island  ;  when  Mr.  Senator  ROBBINS  of 
that  State  addressed  the  company  as  follows  :  — 

"  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  beg  leave  to  offer  a  sentiment ;  but  first,  with  your 
indulgence,  will  offer  a  few  remarks,  not  inappropriate,  I  hope,  to  the  oc 
casion. 

"  It  is  the  peculiar  good  fortune  of  this  country  to  have  given  birth  to  a 
citizen,  whose  name  everywhere  produces  a  sentiment  of  regard  for  his 
country  itself.  In  other  countries,  whenever  or  wherever  this  is  spoken 
of  to  be  praised,  and  with  the  highest  praise,  it  is  called  the  country  of 
Washington.  I  believe  there  is  no  people,  civilized  or  savage,  in  any 
place,  however  remote,  where  the  name  of  Washington  has  not  been 
heard,  and  where  it  is  not  repeated  with  the  fondest  admiration.  We  are 
told,  that  the  Arab  of  the  desert  talks  of  Washington  in  his  tent,  and  that 
his  name  is  familiar  to  the  wandering  Scythian.  He  seems,  indeed,  to.be 
the  delight  of  human  kind,  as  their  beau  ideal  of  human  nature.  '  Nil 
oriturum  alias,  nil  ortum  tale  fatentes.' 

"  No  American,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  but  has  found  the  regard  for 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON.  233 

himself  increased  by  his  connection  with  Washington,  as  his  fellow-coun 
tryman  ;  and  who  has  not  felt  a  pride,  and  had  occasion  to  exult,  in  the 
fortunate  connection  ? 

"  Half  a  century  and  more  has  now  passed  away  since  he  came  upon 
the  stage,  and  his  fame  first  broke  upon  the  world  ;  for  it  broke  like  the 
blaze  of  day  from  the  rising  sun,  —  almost  as  sudden,  and  seemingly  as 
universal.  The  eventful  period  since  that  era  has  teemed  with  great 
men,  who  have  crossed  the  scene  and  passed  off.  Some  of  them  have 
arrested  great  attention,  very  great ;  still  Washington  retains  his  preem 
inent  place  in  the  minds  of  men,  still  his  peerless  name  is  cherished  by 
them  in  the  same  freshness  of  delight  as  in  the  morn  of  its  glory. 

"  History  will  keep  her  record  of  his  fame  ;  but  history  is  not  necessary 
to  perpetuate  it.  In  regions  where  history  is  not  read,  where  letters  are 
unknown,  it  lives,  and  will  go  down  from  age  to  age,  in  all  future  time,  in 
their  traditionary  lore. 

"  Who  would  exchange  this  fame,  the  common  inheritance  of  our 
country,  for  the  fame  of  any  individual  which  any  country  of  any  time 
can  boast  ?  I  would  not ;  with  my  sentiments,  I  could  not. ' 

"  I  recollect  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  Washington  :  indeed,  it  is  impossi 
ble  I  should  forget  it,  or  recollect  it  without  the  liveliest  emotion.  I  was 
then  a  child  at  school.  The  school  was  dismissed,  and  we  were  told,  that 
General  Washington  was  expected  in  town  that  day,  on  his  way  to  Cam 
bridge,  to  take  command  of  the  American  army.  We,  the  children, 
were  permitted  to  mingle  with  the  people,  who  had  assembled  in  mass  to 
see  him.  I  did  see  him ;  I  riveted  my  eyes  upon  him  ;  I  could  now, 
were  I  master  of  the  pencil,  delineate  with  exact  truth  his  form  and  fea 
tures,  and  every  particular  of  his  costume  :  so  vivid  are  my  recollections. 
I  can  never  forget  the  feelings  his  sublime  presence  inspired.  How  often, 
afterwards,  when  I  came,  in  my  studies,  to  learn  them,  have  I  repeated 
and  applied,  as  expressive  of  that  feeling,  these  lines,  — 

"  Quern  sese  ore  ferens !  quam  forti  pectore  et  armis ! 
Credo  equidem,  nee  vana  fides,  genus  esse  Deorum." 

He  did  seem  to  me  more  than  mortal.  It  is  true  this  was  young  and 
ignorant  enthusiasm  ;  but,  though  young  and  ignorant,  it  was  not  false  ; 
it  was  enthusiasm,  which  my  riper  judgment  has  always  recognized  as 
just ;  it  was  but  the  anticipated  sentiment  of  the  whole  human  kind. 

"  I  now  beg  leave  to  offer  this  sentiment: — 

"  The  written  legacy  of  Washington  to  his  countrymen,  —  a  code  of 
politics  by  which,  and  by  which  alone,  as  he  believed,  their  union  and 
their  liberties  can  be  made  immortal." 

20* 


NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION  AT 
WORCESTER. 


NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION  AT 
WORCESTER.* 


MR.  PRESIDENT,  —  I  offer  no  apology  for  addressing  the  meet 
ing.  Holding,  by  the  favor  of  the  people  of  this  Common 
wealth,  an  important  public  situation,  I  deem  it  no  less  than  a 
part  of  my  duty,  at  this  interesting  moment,  to  make  known 
my  opinions  on  the  state  of  public  affairs,  and,  however  I  may 
have  performed  other  duties,  this,  at  least,  it  is  my  purpose,  on 
the  present  occasion,  fully  to  discharge.  Not  intending  to  com 
ment  at  length  on  all  the  subjects  which  now  attract  public  at 
tention,  nor  to  discuss  any  thing  in  detail,  I  wish,  nevertheless, 
before  an  assembly  so  large  and  respectable  as  the  present,  and 
through  them  before  the  whole  people  of  the  State,  to  lay  open, 
without  reserve,  my  own  sentiments,  hopes,  and  fears  respecting 
the  state  and  the  prospects  of  our  common  country. 

The  resolutions  which  have  been  read  from  the  chair  express 
the  opinion,  that  the  public  good  requires  an  effectual  change,  in 
the  administration  of  the  general  government,  both  of  measures 
and  of  men.  In  this  opinion  I  heartily  concur. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  no  citizen  of  the  State,  who,  in  prin 
ciple  and  by  habitual  sentiment,  is  less  disposed  than  myself  to 
general  opposition  to  government,  or  less  desirous  of  frequent 
changes  in  its  administration.  I  entertain  this  feeling  strongly, 
and  at  all  times,  towards  the  government  of  the  United  States ; 
because  I  have  ever  regarded  the  Federal  Constitution  as  a 
frame  of  government  so  peculiar,  and  so  delicate  in  its  relations 
to  the  State  governments,  that  it  might  be  in  danger  of  over 
throw,  as  well  from  an  indiscriminate  and  wanton  opposition,  as 

*  A  Speech  delivered  at  the  National  Republican  Convention  held  at  Wor 
cester,  Mass.,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1832,  preparatory  to  the  Annual  Elections. 


238  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

from  a  weak  or  a  wicked  administration.  But  a  case  may  arise 
in  which  the  government  is  no  longer  safe  in  the  hands  to  which 
it  has  been  intrusted.  It  may  come  to  be  a  question,  not  so  much 
in  what  particular  manner,  or  according  to  what  particular  politi 
cal  opinions,  the  government  shall  be  administered,  as  whether 
the  Constitution  itself  shall  be  preserved  and  maintained.  Now, 
Sir,  in  my  judgment,  just  such  a  case  and  just  such  a  question 
are  at  this  moment  before  the  American  people.  Entertaining 
this  sentiment,  and  thoroughly  and  entirely  convinced  of  its 
truth,  I  wish,  as  far  as  my  humble  power  extends,  to  produce  in 
the  people  a  more  earnest  attention  to  their  public  concerns. 
With  the  people,  and  the  people  alone,  lies  any  remedy  for  the 
past  or  any  security  for  the  future.  No  delegated  power  is 
equal  to  the  exigency  of  the  present  crisis.  No  public  servants, 
however  able  or  faithful,  have  ability  to  check  or  to  stop  the  fear 
ful  tendency  of  things.  It  is  a  case  for  sovereign  interposition. 
The  rescue,  if  it  come  at  all,  must  come  from  that  power  which 
no  other  on  earth  can  resist.  I  earnestly  wish,  therefore,  unim 
portant  as  my  own  opinions  may  be,  and  entitled,  as  I  know 
they  are,  to  no  considerable  regard,  yet,  since  they  are  honest 
and  sincere,  and  since  they  respect  nothing  less  than  dangers 
which  appear  to  me  to  threaten  the  government  and  Constitution 
of  the  country,  I  fervently  wish  that  I  could  now  make  them 
known,  not  only  to  this  meeting  and  to  this  State,  but  to  every 
man  in  the  Union.  I  take  the  hazard  of  the  reputation  of  an 
alarmist ;  I  cheerfully  submit  to  the  imputation  of  over-excited 
apprehension ;  I  discard  all  fear  of  the  cry  of  false  prophecy,  and 
I  declare,  that,  in  my  judgment,  not  only  the  great  interests  of 
the  country,  but  the  Constitution  itself,  are  in  imminent  peril, 
and  that  nothing  can  save  either  the  one  or  the  other  but  that 
voice  which  has  authority  to  say  to  the  evils  of  misrule  and 
misgovernment,  "  Hitherto  shall  ye  come,  but  no  further." 

It  is  true,  Sir,  that  it  is  the  natural  effect  of  a  good  constitu 
tion  to  protect  the  people.  But  who  shall  protect  the  constitu 
tion  ?  Who  shall  guard  the  guardian  ?  What  arm  but  the 
mighty  arm  of  the  people  itself  is  able,  in  a  popular  government, 
to  uphold  public  institutions  ?  The  constitution  itself  is  but  the 
creature  of  the  public  will ;  and  in  every  crisis  which  threatens 
it,  it  must  owe  its  security  to  the  same  power  to  which  it  owes 
its  origin. 


AT  WORCESTER.  239 

The  appeal,  therefore,  is  to  the  people ;  not  to  party  nor  to 
partisans,  not  to  professed  politicians,  not  to  those  who  have 
an  interest  in  office  and  place  greater  than  their  stake  in  the 
country,  but  to  the  people,  and  the  whole  people ;  to  those  who, 
in  regard  to  political  affairs,  have  no  wish  but  for  a  good  gov 
ernment,  and  who  have  power  to  accomplish  their  own  wishes. 

Mr.  President,  are  the  principles  and  leading  measures  of  the 
administration  hostile  to  the  great  interests  of  the  country  ? 

Are  they  dangerous  to  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  union  of 
the  States  ? 

Is  there  any  prospect  of  a  beneficial  change  of  principles  and 
measures,  without  a  change  of  men  ? 

Is  there  reasonable  ground  to  hope  for  such  a  change  of  men  ? 

On  these  several  questions,  I  desire  to  state  my  own  convic 
tions  fully,  though  as  briefly  as  possible. 

As  government  is  intended  to  be  a  practical  institution,  if  it 
be  wisely  formed,  the  first  and  most  natural  test  of  its  adminis 
tration  is  the  effect  produced  by  it.  Let  us  look,  then,  to  the 
actual  state  of  our  affairs.  Is  it  such  as  should  follow  a  good 
administration  of  a  good  constitution  ? 

Sir,  we  see  one  State  openly  threatening  to  arrest  the  execu 
tion  of  the  revenue  laws  of  the  Union,  by  acts  of  her  own. 
This  proceeding  is  threatened,  not  by  irresponsible  persons,  but 
by  those  who  fill  her  chief  places  of  power  and  trust. 

In  another  State,  free  citizens  of  the  country  are  imprisoned, 
and  held  in  prison,  in  defiance  of  a  judgment  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  pronounced  for  their  deliverance.  Immured  in  a  dungeon, 
marked  and  patched  as  subjects  of  penitentiary  punishment, 
these  free  citizens  pass  their  days  in  counting  the  slow-revolving 
hours  of  their  miserable  captivity,  and  their  nights  in  feverish 
and  delusive  dreams  of  their  own  homes  and  their  own  fami 
lies  ;  while  the  Constitution  stands  adjudged  to  be  violated,  a 
law  of  Congress  is  effectually  repealed  by  the  act  of  a  State, 
and  a  judgment  of  deliverance  by  the  Supreme  Court  is  set  a 
naught  and  contemned.* 

Treaties,  importing  the  most  solemn  and  sacred  obligations, 
are  denied  to  have  binding  force. 

*  See  page  269,  infra 


240  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

A  feeling  that  there  is  great  insecurity  for  property,  and  the 
stability  of  the  means  of  living,  extensively  prevails. 

The  whole  subject  of  the  tariff,  acted  on  for  the  moment,  is 
at  the  same  moment  declared  not  to  be  at  rest,  but  liable  to  be 
again  moved,  and  with  greater  effect,  just  so  soon  as  power  foi 
that  purpose  shall  be  obtained. 

The  currency  of  the  country,  hitherto  safe,  sound,  and  uni 
versally  satisfactory,  is  threatened  with  a  violent  change ;  and 
an  embarrassment  in  pecuniary  affairs,  equally  distressing  and 
unnecessary,  hangs  over  all  the  trading  and  active  classes  of 
society. 

A  long-used  and  long-approved  legislative  instrument  for  the 
collection  of  revenue,  well  secured  against  abuse,  and  always 
responsible  to  Congress  and  to  the  laws,  is  denied  further  exist 
ence  ;  and  its  place  is  proposed  to  be  supplied  by  a  new  branch 
of  the  executive  department,  with  a  money  power  controlled 
and  conducted  solely  by  executive  agency. 

The  power  of  the  VETO  is  exercised,  not  as  an  extraordinary, 
but  as  an  ordinary  power ;  as  a  common  mode  of  defeating  acts 
of  Congress  not  acceptable  to  the  executive.  We  hear,  one 
day,  that  the  President  needs  the  advice  of  no  cabinet;  that  a 
few  secretaries,  or  clerks,  are  enough  for  him.  The  next,  we  are 
informed  that  the  Supreme  Court  is  but  an  obstacle  to  the  pop 
ular  will,  and  the  whole  judicial  department  but  an  encum 
brance  to  government.  And  while,  on  one  side,  the  judicial 
power  is  thus  derided  and  denounced,  on  the  other  arises  the  cry, 
"  Cut  down  the  Senate  ! "  and  over  the  whole,  at  the  same  time, 
prevails  the  loud  avowal,  shouted  with  all  the  lungs  of  conscious 
party  strength  and  party  triumph,  that  the  spoils  of  the  enemy 
belong  to  the  victors.  This  condition  of  things,  Sir,  this  general 
and  obvious  aspect  of  affairs,  is  the  result  of  three  years'  ad 
ministration,  such  as  the  country  has  experienced. 

But,  not  resting  on  this  general  view  of  results,  let  me  inquire 
what  the  principles  and  policy  of  the  administration  are,  on  the 
leading  interests  of  the  country,  subordinate  to  the  Constitution 
itself.  And  first,  what  are  its  principles,  and  what  its  policy, 
respecting  the  tariff?  Is  this  great  question  settled,  or  unsettled  ? 
And  is  the  present  administration  for,  or  against,  the  tariff? 

Sir,  the  question  is  wholly  unsettled,  and  the  principles  of  the 
administration,  according  to  its  most  recent  avowal  of  those 


AT  WORCESTER.  241 

principles,  are  adverse  to  the  protective  policy,  decidedly  hostile 
to  the  whole  system,  root  and  branch ;  and  this  on  permanent 
and  alleged  constitutional  grounds. 

In  the  first  place,  nothing  has  been  done  to  settle  the  tariff 
question.  The  anti-tariff  members  of  Congress  who  voted  for 
the  late  law  have,  none  of  them,  said  they  would  adhere  to  it. 
On  the  contrary,  they  supported  it,  because,  as  far  as  it  went,  it 
was  reduction,  and  that  was  what  they  wished ;  and  if  they  ob 
tained  this  degree  of  reduction  now,  it  would  be  easier  to  obtain 
a  greater  degree  hereafter ;  and  they  frankly  declared,  that  their 
intent  and  purpose  was  to  insist  on  reduction,  and  to  pur 
sue  reduction,  unremittingly,  till  all  duties  on  imports  should 
be  brought  down  to  one  general  and  equal  percentage,  and 
that  regulated  by  the  mere  wants  of  the  revenue;  or,  if  dif 
ferent  rates  of  duty  should  remain  on  different  articles,  still, 
that  the  whole  should  be  laid  for  revenue,  and  revenue  only ; 
and  that  they  would,  to  the  utmost  of  then*  power,  push  this 
course,  till  protection  by  duties,  as  a  special  object  of  national 
policy,  should  be  abandoned  altogether  in  the  national  councils. 
It  is  a  delusion,  therefore,  Sir,  to  imagine  that  the  present  tariff' 
stands,  safely,  on  conceded  ground.  It  covers  not  an  inch  that 
has  not  been  fought  for,  and  must  not  be  again  fought  for.  It 
stands  while  its  friends  can  protect  it,  and  not  an  hour  longer. 

In  the  next  place,  in  that  compend  of  executive  opinion  con 
tained  in  the  veto  message,  the  whole  principle  of  the  protec 
tive  policy  is  plainly  and  pointedly  denounced. 

Having  gone  through  its  argument  against  the  bank  charter, 
as  it  now  exists,  and  as  it  has  existed,  either  under  the  present 
or  a  former  law,  for  near  forty  years,  and  having  added  to  the 
well-doubted  logic  of  that  argument  the  still  more  doubtful  aid 
of  a  large  array  of  opprobrious  epithets,  the  message,  in  unveiled 
allusion  to  the  protective  policy  of  the  country,  holds  this  lan 
guage  :  — 

"  Most  of  the  difficulties  our  government  now  encounters,  and  most 
of  the  dangers  which  impend  over  our  Union,  have  sprung  from  an  aban 
donment  of  the  legitimate  objects  of  government  by  our  national  legisla 
tion,  and  the  adoption  of  such  principles  as  are  embodied  in  this  act. 
Many  of  our  rich  men  have  not  been  content  with  equal  protection  and 
equal  benefits,  but  have  besought  us  to  make  them  richer  by  act  of  Con 
gress.  By  attempting  to  gratify  their  desires,  we  have,  in  the  results  of 

VOL.  i.  21 


242  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

our  legislation,  arrayed  section  against  section,  interest  against  interest, 
and  man  against  man,  in  a  fearful  commotion  which  threatens  to  shake 
the  foundations  of  our  Union.  It  is  time  to  pause  in  our  career,  to  re 
view  our  principles,  and,  if  possible,  revive  that  devoted  patriotism  and 
spirit  of  compromise  which  distinguished  the  sages  of  the  Revolution  and 
the  fathers  of  our  Union.  If  we  cannot  at  once,  in  justice  to  interests 
vested  under  improvident  legislation,  make  our  government  what  it  ought 
to  be,  we  can  at  least  take  a  stand  against  all  new  grants  of  monopolies 
and  exclusive  privileges,  against  any  prostitution  of  our  government  to 
the  advancement  of  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many,  and  in  favor  of 
compromise  and  gradual  reform  in  our  code  of  laws  and  system  of  politi 
cal  economy." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  whole  creed.  Our  national  legisla 
ture  has  abandoned  the  legitimate  objects  of  government.  It 
has  adopted  such  principles  as  are  embodied  in  the  bank  char 
ter;  and  these  principles  are  elsewhere  called  objectionable,  odi 
ous,  and  unconstitutional.  All  this  has  been  done,  because 
rich  men  have  besought  the  government  to  render  them  richer 
by  acts  of  Congress.  It  is  time  to  pause  in  our  career.  It  is 
time  to  review  these  principles.  And  if  we  cannot  at  once  MAKE 
OUR  GOVERNMENT  WHAT  IT  OUGHT  TO  BE,  we  can,  at  least,  take  a 
stand  against  new  grants  of  power  and  privilege. 

The  plain  meaning  of  all  this  is,  that  our  protecting  laws  are 
founded  in  an  abandonment  of  the  legitimate  objects  of  govern 
ment  ;  that  this  is  the  great  source  of  our  difficulties ;  that  it  is 
time  to  stop  in  our  career,  to  review  the  principles  of  these  laws, 
and,  as  soon  as  we  can,  MAKE  OUR  GOVERNMENT  WHAT  IT  OUGHT 
TO  BE. 

No  one  can  question,  Mr.  President,  that  these  paragraphs, 
from  the  last  official  publication  of  the  President,  show  that,  in 
his  opinion,  the  tariff,  as  a  system  designed  for  protection,  is  not 
only  impolitic,  but  unconstitutional  also.  They  are  quite  incapa 
ble  of  any  other  version  or  interpretation.  They  defy  all  expla 
nation,  and  all  glosses. 

Sir,  however  we  may  differ  from  the  principles  or  the  policy 
of  the  administration,  it  would,  nevertheless,  somewhat  satisfy 
our  pride  of  country,  if  we  could  ascribe  to  it  the  character  of 
consistency.  It  would  be  grateful  if  we  could  contemplate  the 
President  of  the  United  States  as  an  identical  idea.  But  even 
this  secondary  pleasure  is  denied  to  us.  In  looking  to  the  pub- 


AT  WORCESTER.  243 

lished  records  of  executive  opinions,  sentiments  favorable  to 
protection  and  sentiments  against  protection  either  come  con 
fusedly  before  us,  at  the  same  moment,  or  else  follow  each  other 
in  rapid  succession,  like  the  shadows  of  a  phantasmagoria. 

Having  read  an  extract  from  the  veto  message,  containing  the 
statement  of  present  opinions,  allow  me  to  read  another  extract 
from  the  annual  message  of  1830.  It  will  be  perceived,  that  m 
that  message  both  the  clear  constitutionality  of  the  tariff  laws, 
and  their  indispensable  policy,  are  maintained  in  the  fullest  and 
strongest  manner.  The  argument  on  the  constitutional  point 
is  stated  with  more  than  common  ability ;  and  the  policy  of  the 
laws  is  affirmed  in  terms  importing  the  deepest  and  most  settled 
conviction.  We  hear  in  this  message  nothing  of  improvident 
legislation ;  nothing  of  the  abandonment  of  the  legitimate  ob 
jects  of  government ;  nothing  of  the  necessity  of  pausing  in  our 
career  and  reviewing  our  principles ;  nothing  of  the  necessity  of 
changing  our  government,  till  it  shall  be  made  what  it  ought  to 
be.  But  let  the  message  speak  for  itself. 

"  The  power  to  impose  duties  on  imports  originally  belonged  to  the 
several  States.  The  right  to  adjust  those  duties  with  a  view  to  the  en 
couragement  of  domestic  branches  of  industry  is  so  completely  inciden 
tal  to  that  power,  that  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  the  existence  of  the  one 
without  the  other.  The  States  have  delegated  their  whole  authority  over 
imports  to  the  general  government,  without  limitation  or  restriction,  sav 
ing  the  very  inconsiderable  reservation  relating  to  their  inspection  laws. 
This  authority  having  thus  entirely  passed  from  the  States,  the  right  to 
exercise  it  for  the  purpose  of  protection  does  not  exist  in  them ;  and  con 
sequently,  if  it  be  not  possessed  by  the  general  government,  it  must  be 
extinct.  Our  political  system  would  thus  present  the  anomaly  of  a  peo 
ple  stripped  of  the  right  to  foster  their  own  industry,  and  to  counteract 
the  most  selfish  and  destructive  policy  which  might  be  adopted  by  foreign 
nations.  This  surely  cannot  be  the  case  ;  this  indispensable  power,  thus 
surrendered  by  the  States,  must  be  within  the  scope  of  the  authority  on 
the  subject  expressly  delegated  to  Congress. 

"  In  this  conclusion  I  am  confirmed,  as  well  by  the  opinions  of  Presi 
dents  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  who  have  each  re 
peatedly  recommended  the  exercise  of  this  right  under  the  Constitution, 
as  by  the  uniform  practice  of  Congress,  the  continued  acquiescence  of 
the  States,  and  the  general  understanding  of  the  people. 

"  I  am  well  aware  that  this  is  a  subject  of  so  much  delicacy,  on  account 
of  the  extended  interests  it  involves,  as  to  require  that  it  should  be  touched 


244  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

with  the  utmost  caution ;  and  that,  while  an  abandonment  of  the  policy  in 
which  it  originated,  a  policy  coeval  with  our  government,  pursued  through 
successive  administrations,  is  neither  to  be  expected  nor  desired,  the  people 
have  a  right  to  demand,  and  have  demanded,  that  it  be  so  modified  as  to 
correct  abuses  and  obviate  injustice." 

Mr.  President,  no  one  needs  to  point  out  inconsistencies  plain 
and  striking  as  these.  The  message  of  1830  is  a  well-written 
paper ;  it  proceeded,  probably,  from  the  cabinet  proper.  Whence 
the  veto  message  of  1832  proceeded,  I  know  not ;  perhaps  from 
the  cabinet  improper. 

But,  Sir,  there  is  an  important  record  of  an  earlier  date  than 
1830.  If,  as  the  President  avers,  we  have  been  guilty  of  im 
provident  legislation,  what  act  of  Congress  is  the  most  striking 
instance  of  that  improvidence  ?  Certainly  it  is  the  act  of  1824. 
The  principle  of  protection,  repeatedly  recognized  before  that 
time,  was,  by  that  act,  carried  to  a  new  and  great  extent ;  so 
new  and  so  great,  that  the  act  was  considered  as  the  foundation 
of  the  system.  That  law  it  was  which  conferred  on  the  distin 
guished  citizen,  whose  nomination  for  President  this  meeting  has 
received  with  so  much  enthusiasm,  (Mr.  Clay,)  the  appellation  of 
the  "Author  of  the  American  System."  Accordingly,  the  act  of 
1824  has  been  the  particular  object  of  attack,  in  all  the  warfare 
waged  against  the  protective  policy.  If  Congress  ever  aban 
doned  legitimate  objects  of  legislation  in  favor  of  protection,  it 
did  so  by  that  law.  If  any  laws  now  on  the  statute-book,  or 
which  ever  were  there,  show,  by  their  character  as  laws  of  pro 
tection,  that  our  government  is  not  what  it  ought  to  be,  and 
that  it  ought  to  be  altered,  and,  in  the  language  of  the  veto 
message,  made  what  it  ought  to  be,  the  law  of  1824  is  the  very 
law  which,  more  than  any  and  more  than  all  others,  makes 
good  that  assertion.  And  yet,  Sir,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  then  a  Senator  in  Congress,  voted  for  that  law !  And, 
though  I  have  not  recurred  to  the  journal,  my  recollection  is, 
that,  as  to  some  of  its  provisions,  his  support  was  essential  to 
their  success.  It  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  some  of  its  enact 
ments,  and  those  now  most  loudly  complained  of,  would  have 
failed,  but  for  his  own  personal  support  of  them  by  his  own 
vote. 

After  all  this,  it  might  have  been  hoped  that  there  would  be, 
in  1832,  some  tolerance  of  opinion  toward  those  who  cannot 


AT  WORCESTER.  245 

think  that  improvidence,  abandonment  of  all  the  legitimate  ob 
jects  of  legislation,  a  desire  to  gratify  the  rich,  who  have  be 
sought  Congress  to  make  them  still  richer,  and  the  adoption  of 
principles  unequal,  oppressive,  and  odious,  are  the  true  charac 
teristics  to  be  ascribed  to  the  system  of  protection. 

But,  Sir,  it  is  but  a  small  part  of  my  object  to  show  incon 
sistencies  in  executive  opinions.  My  main  purpose  is  different, 
and  tends  to  more  practical  ends.  It  is,  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  meeting,  and  of  the  people,  to  the  principles  avowed  in 
the  late  message  as  being  the  President's  present  opinions,  and 
proofs  of  his  present,  purposes,  and  to  the  consequences,  if  they 
shall  be  maintained  by  the  country.  These  principles  are  there 
expressed  in  language  which  needs  no  commentary.  They  go, 
with  a  point-blank  aim,  against  the  fundamental  stone  of  the 
protective  system ;  that  is  to  say,  against  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  establish  and  maintain  that  system,  in 
whole  or  in  part.  The  question,  therefore,  of  the  tariff,  the  ques 
tion  of  every  tariff,  the  question  between  maintaining  our  agri 
cultural  and  manufacturing  interests  where  they  now  are,  and 
breaking  up  the  entire  system,  and  erasing  every  vestige  of  it 
from  the  statute-book,  is  a  question  materially  to  be  affected  by 
the  pending  election. 

The  President  has  exercised  his  NEGATIVE  power  on  the  law 
for  continuing  the  bank  charter.  Here,  too,  he  denies  both  the 
constitutionality  and  the  policy  of  an  existing  law  of  the  land. 
It  is  true  that  the  law,  or  a  similar  one,  has  been  in  operation 
nearly  forty  years.  Previous  Presidents  and  previous  Congresses 
have,  all  along,  sanctioned  and  upheld  it.  The  highest  courts, 
and  indeed  all  the  courts,  have  pronounced  it  constitutional. 
A  majority  of  the  people,  greater  than  exists  on  almost  any  other 
question,  agrees  with  all  the  Presidents,  all  the  Congresses,  and 
all  the  courts  of  law.  Yet,  against  all  this  weight  of  author 
ity,  the  President  puts  forth  his  own  individual  opinion,  and  has 
negatived  the  bill  for  continuing  the  law.  Which  of  the  mem 
bers  of  his  administration,  or  whether  any  one  of  them,  concur 
in  his  sentiments,  we  know  not.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  have 
recently  advanced  precisely  the  opposite  opinions,  and  in  the 
strongest  manner  recommended  to  Congress  the  continuation 
of  the  bank  charter.  Having  himself  urgently  and  repeatedly 
21* 


246  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject,  and  his  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  —  who,  and  all  the  other  secretaries,  as  the 
President's  friends  say,  are  but  so  many  pens  in  his  hand  —  hav 
ing,  in  his  communication  to  Congress,  at  this  very  session,  in 
sisted  both  on  the  constitutionality  and  necessity  of  the  bank, 
the  President  nevertheless  saw  fit  to  negative  the  bill,  passed,  as 
it  had  been,  by  strong  majorities  in  both  Houses,  and  passed, 
without  doubt  or  question,  in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  a 
vast  majority  of  the  American  people. 

The  question  respecting  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress 
to  establish  a  bank,  I  shall  not  here  discuss.  On  that,  as  well 
as  on  the  general  expediency  of  renewing  the  charter,  my  opin 
ions  have  been  elsewhere  expressed.  They  are  before  the 
public,  and  the  experience  of  every  day  confirms  me  in  their 
truth.  All  that  has  been  said  of  the  embarrassment  and  dis 
tress  which  will  be  felt  from  discontinuing  the  bank  falls  far 
short  of  an  adequate  representation.  What  was  prophecy  only 
two  months  ago  is  already  history. 

In  this  part  of  the  country,  indeed,  we  experience  this  dis 
tress  and  embarrassment  in  a  mitigated  degree.  The  loans  of 
the  bank  are  not  so  highly  important,  or  at  least  not  so  abso 
lutely  necessary,  to  the  present  operations  of  our  commerce ; 
yet  we  ourselves  have  a  deep  interest  in  the  subject,  as  it  is  con 
nected  with  the  general  currency  of  the  country,  and  with  the 
cheapness  and  facility  of  exchange. 

The  country,  generally  speaking,  was  well  satisfied  with  the 
bank.  Why  not  let  it  alone  ?  No  evil  had  been  felt  from  it  in 
thirty-six  years.  Why  conjure  up  a  troop  of  fancied  mischiefs, 
as  a  pretence  to  put  it  down  ?  The  message  struggles  to  excite 
prejudices,  from  the  circumstance  that  foreigners  are  stockhold 
ers  ;  and  on  this  ground  it  raises  a  loud  cry  against  a  moneyed 
aristocracy.  Can  any  thing,  Sir,  be  conceived  more  inconsist 
ent  than  this  ?  any  thing  more  remote  from  sound  policy  and 
good  statesmanship  ?  In  the  United  States  the  rate  of  interesl 
is  high,  compared  with  the  rates  abroad.  In  Holland  and  Eng 
land,  the  actual  value  of  money  is  no  more  than  three,  or  per 
haps  three  and  a  half,  per  cent.  In  our  Atlantic  States,  it  is  as 
high  as  five  or  six,  taking  the  whole  length  of  the  seaboard ;  in 
the  Northwestern  States,  it  is  eight  or  ten,  and  in  the  South 
western  ten  or  twelve.  If  the  introduction,  then,  of  foreign  cap- 


AT  WORCESTER.  247 

ital  be  discountenanced  and  discouraged,  the  American  money 
lender  may  fix  his  own  rate  anywhere  from  five  to  twelve  per 
cent,  per  annum.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  introduction  of  for 
eign  capital  be  countenanced  and  encouraged,  its  effect  is  to  keep 
down  the  rate  of  interest,  and  to  bring  the  value  of  money  in 
the  United  States  so  much  the  nearer  to  its  value  in  older  and 
richer  countries.  Every  dollar  brought  from  abroad,  and  put  into 
the  mass  of  active  capital  at  home,  by  so  much  diminishes  the 
rate  of  interest ;  and  by  so  much,  therefore,  benefits  all  the  ac 
tive  and  trading  classes  of  society,  at  the  expense  of  the  Ameri 
can  capitalist.  Yet  the  President's  invention,  for  such  it  de 
serves  to  be  called,  that  which  is  to  secure  us  against  the  possi 
bility  of  being  oppressed  by  a  moneyed  aristocracy,  is  to  shut 
the  door  and  bar  it  safely  against  all  introduction  of  foreign 
capital ! 

Mr.  President,  what  is  it  that  has  made  England  a  sort  of 
general  banker  for  the  civilized  world  ?  Why  is  it  that  capita, 
from  all  quarters  of  the  globe  accumulates  at  the  centre  of  her 
empire,  and  is  thence  again  distributed?  Doubtless,  Sir,  it  is 
because  she  invites  it,  and  solicits  it.  She  sees  the  advantage 
of  this ;  and  no  British  minister  ever  yet  did  a  thing  so  rash, 
so  inconsiderate,  so  startling,  as  to  exhibit  a  groundless  feeling 
of  dissatisfaction  at  the  introduction  or  employment  of  foreign 
capital. 

Sir,  of  all  the  classes  of  society,  the  larger  stockholders  of  the 
bank  are  among  those  least  likely  to  suffer  from  its  discontinu 
ance.  There  are,  indeed,  on  the  list  of  stockholders  many  char 
itable  institutions,  many  widows  and  orphans,  holding  small 
amounts.  To  these,  and  other  proprietors  of  a  like  character, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  bank  will,  no  doubt,  be  seriously  in 
convenient.  But  the  capitalist,  he  who  has  invested  money 
in  the  bank  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  security  and  the  inter 
est,  has  nothing  to  fear.  The  refusal  to  renew  the  charter 
will,  it  is  true,  diminish  the  value  of  the  stock ;  but,  then, 
the  same  refusal  will  create  a  scarcity  of  money  ;  and  this 
will  reduce  the  price  of  all  other  stocks ;  so  that  the  stockhold 
ers  in  the  bank,  receiving,  on  its  dissolution,  their  portion  re 
spectively  of  its  capital,  will  have  opportunities  of  new  and 
advantageous  investment. 

The  truth  is,  Sir,  the  great  loss,  the  sore  embarrassment,  the 


248  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

severe  distress,  arising  from  this  VETO,  will  fall  on  the  public, 
and  especially  on  the  more  active  and  industrious  portion  of  the 
public.  It  will  inevitably  create  a  scarcity  of  money ;  in  the 
Western  States,  it  will  most  materially  depress  the  value  of 
property ;  it  will  greatly  enhance,  everywhere,  the  price  of  do 
mestic  exchange ;  it  threatens,  everywhere,  fluctuations  of  the 
currency ;  and  it  drives  all  our  well-settled  and  safe  operations 
of  revenue  and  finance  out  of  their  accustomed  channels.  All 
this  is  to  be  suffered  on  the  pretended  ground  of  a  constitutional 
scruple,  which  no  respect  for  the  opinion  of  others,  no  deference 
to  legislative  precedent,  no  decent  regard  to  judicial  decision,  no 
homage  to  public  opinion,  expressed  and  maintained  for  forty 
years,  have  power  to  overcome.  An  idle  apprehension  of  dan 
ger  is  set  up  against  the  experience  of  almost  half  a  century; 
loose  and  flimsy  theories  are  asserted  against  facts  of  general 
notoriety ;  and  arguments  are  urged  against  continuing  the  char 
ter,  so  superficial  and  frivolous,  and  yet  so  evidently  addressed 
to  those  of  the  community  who  have  never  had  occasion  to  be 
conversant  with  subjects  of  this  sort,  that  an  intelligent  reader, 
who  wishes  to  avoid  imputing  obliquity  of  motive,  is  obliged  to 
content  himself  with  ascribing  to  the  source  of  the  message, 
whatever  and  wherever  that  source  may  have  been,  no  very  dis 
tinguished  share  of  the  endowments  of  intellect. 

Mr.  President,  as  early  as  December,  1829,  the  President  called 
the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject  of  the  bank,  in  the  most 
earnest  manner.  Look  to  his  annual  message  of  that  date. 
You  will  find  that  he  then  felt  constrained,  by  an  irresistible 
sense  of  duty  to  the  various  interests  concerned,  not  to  delay 
beyond  that  moment  his  urgent  invitation  to  Congress  to  take 
up  the  subject.  He  brought  forward  the  same  topic  again,  in 
all  his  subsequent  annual  messages ;  yet  when  Congress  did  act 
upon  it,  and,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  EIGHTEEN  HUNDRED  AND 
THIRTY-TWO,  did  send  him  a  bill,  he  returned  it  with  his  ob 
jections  ;  and  among  these  objections,  he  not  only  complained 
that  the  executive  was  not  consulted  on  the  propriety  of  present 
action,  but  affirmed  also,  in  so  many  words,  that  present  action 
was  deemed  premature  by  the  executive  department. 

Let  me  ask,  Mr.  President,  if  it  be  possible  that  the  same 
President,  the  same  chief  magistrate,  the  same  mind,  could 
have  composed  these  two  messages?  Certainly  they  much 


AT  WORCESTER.  249 

more  resemble  the  production  of  two  minds,  holding,  on  this 
point,  precisely  opposite  opinions.  The  message  of  December, 
1829,  asserts  that  the  time  had  then  come  for  Congress  to  con 
sider  the  bank  subject;  the  message  of  1832  declares,  that,  even 
then,  the  action  of  Congress  on  the  same  subject  was  prema 
ture  ;  and  both  these  messages  were  sent  to  Congress  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  Sir,  I  leave  these  two  messa 
ges  to  be  compared  and  considered  by  the  people. 

Mr.  President,  I  will  here  take  notice  of  but  one  other  sug 
gestion  of  the  President,  relative  to  the  time  and  manner  of 
passing  the  late  bill.  A  decent  respect  for  the  legislature  of 
the  country  has  hitherto  been  observed  by  all  who  have  had  oc 
casion  to  hold  official  intercourse  with  it,  and  especially  by  all 
other  branches  of  the  government.  The  purity  of  the  motives 
of  Congress,  in  regard  to  any  measure,  has  never  been  assailed 
from  any  respectable  quarter.  But  in  the  veto  message  there  is 
one  expression,  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  no  American  can  read 
without  some  feeling.  There  is  an  expression,  evidently  not 
casual  or  accidental,  but  inserted  with  design  and  composed 
with  care,  which  does  carry  a  direct  imputation  of  the  possibil 
ity  of  the  effect  of  private  interest  and  private  influence  on  the 
deliberations  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  I  quote  the  pas 
sage,  and  shall  leave  it  without  a  single  remark :  —  "  Whatever 
interest  or  influence,  whether  public  or  private,  has  given  birth 
to  this  act,  it  cannot  be  found  either  in  the  wishes  or  necessities 
of  the  executive  department,  by  which  present  action  is  deemed 
premature." 

Among  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  Mr.  President,  there 
is  one  which  appears  to  me  not  to  have  attracted  from  the 
people  of  this  Commonwealth  a  degree  of  attention  altogether 
equal  to  its  magnitude.  I  mean  the  public  lands. 

If  we  run  our  eye  over  the  map  of  the  country,  and  view 
the  regions,  almost  boundless,  which  now  constitute  the  pub 
lic  domain,  and  over  which  an  active  population  is  rapidly 
spreading  itself,  and  if  we  recollect  the  amount  of  annual 
revenue  derived  from  this  source,  we  shah1  hardly  fail  to  be 
convinced  that  few  branches  of  national  interest  are  of  more 
extensive  and  lasting  importance.  So  large  a  territory,  be 
longing  to  the  public,  forms  a  subject  of  national  concern  of  a 


250  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

very  delicate  nature,  especially  in  popular  governments.  "We 
know,  in  the  history  of  other  countries,  with  what  views  arid  de 
signs  the  public  lands  have  been  granted.  Either  in  the  form  of 
gifts  and  largesses,  or  in  that  of  reduction  of  prices  to  amounts 
merely  nominal,  or  as  compensation  for  services,  real  or  im 
agined,  the  public  domain,  in  other  countries  and  other  times, 
has  not  only  been  diverted  from  its  just  use  and  destination,  but 
has  been  the  occasion,  also,  of  introducing  into  the  state  and 
into  the  public  counsels  no  small  portion  both  of  distraction  and 
corruption. 

Happily,  our  own  system  of  administering  this  great  interest 
has  hitherto  been  both  safe  and  successful.  Nothing  under  the 
government  has  been  better  devised  than  our  land  system ;  and 
nothing,  thus  far,  more  beneficially  conducted.  But  the  time 
seems  to  have  arrived,  in  the  progress  of  our  growth  and  pros 
perity,  when  it  has  become  necessary  to  reflect,  not  on  any  new 
mode  of  sale,  for  that  can  hardly  be  improved,  but  on  some 
disposition  of  the  proceeds  such  as  shall  be  just  and  equal  to 
the  whole  country,  and  shall  insure  also  a  constant  and  vigilant 
attention  to  this  important  subject  from  the  people  of  all  the 
States.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  or  disguised,  that  sentiments 
have  recently  sprung  up,  in  some  places,  of  a  very  extraordinary 
character,  respecting  the  ownership,  the  just  proprietary  interest, 
in  these  lands.  The  lands  are  well  known  to  have  been  ob 
tained  by  the  United  States,  either  by  grants  from  individual 
States,  or  by  treaties  with  foreign  powers.  In  both  cases,  and 
in  all  cases,  the  grants  and  cessions  were  to  the  United  States, 
for  the  interest  of  the  whole  Union ;  and  the  grants  from  indi 
vidual  States  contain  express  limitations  and  conditions,  bind 
ing  up  the  whole  property  to  the  common  use  of  all  the  States 
for  ever.  Yet,  of  late  years,  an  idea  has  been  suggested,  indeed 
seriously  advanced,  that  these  lands,  of  right,  belong  to  the  Slates 
respectively  in  which  they  happen  to  lie.  This  doctrine,  Sir, 
which,  I  perceive,  strikes  this  assembly  as  being  somewhat  ex 
travagant,  is  founded  on  an  argument  derived,  as  is  supposed, 
from  the  nature  of  State  sovereignty.  It  has  been  openly  es 
poused,  by  candidates  for  office,  in  some  of  the  new  States^ 
and,  indeed,  has  been  announced  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States. 

To  the  credit  of  the  country,  it  should  be  stated,  that,  up  tc 


AT  WORCESTER.  251 

the  present  moment,  these  notions  have  not  spread  widely;  and 
they  will  be  repudiated,  undoubtedly,  by  the  power  of  general 
opinion,  so  soon  as  that  opinion  shall  be  awakened  and  ex 
pressed.  But  there  is  another  tendency  more  likely,  perhaps,  to 
run  to  injurious  excess ;  and  that  is,  a  constant  effort  to  reduce 
the  price  of  land  to  sums  almost  nominal,  on  the  ground  of 
facilitating  settlement.  The  sound  policy  of  the  government 
has  been,  uniformly,  to  keep  the  prices  of  the  public  lands  low ; 
eo  low  that  every  actual  settler  might  easily  obtain  a  farm ;  but 
yet  not  so  low  as  to  tempt  individual  capitalists  to  buy  up  large 
quantities  to  hold  for  speculation.  The  object  has  been  to 
meet,  at  all  times,  the  whole  actual  demand,  at  a  cheap  rate ; 
and  this  object  has  been  attained.  It  is  obviously  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  keep  the  prices  of  the  public  lands  from  all  influ 
ences,  except  the  single  one  of  the  desire  of  supplying  the  whole 
actual  demand  at  a  cheap  rate.  The  present  minimum  price  is 
one  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre ;  and  millions  of  acres  of  land, 
much  of  it  of  an  excellent  quality,  are  now  in  the  market  at  this 
rate.  Yet  every  year  there  are  propositions  to  reduce  the  price, 
and  propositions  to  graduate  the  price ;  that  is  to  say,  to  pro 
vide  that  all  lands  having  been  offered  for  sale  for  a  certain 
length  of  time  at  the  established  rate,  if  not  then  sold,  shall  be 
offered  at  a  less  rate ;  and  again  reduced,  if  not  sold,  to  one  still 
less.  I  have  myself  thought,  that,  in  some  of  the  oldest  districts, 
some  mode  might  usefully  be  adopted  of  disposing  of  the  re 
mainder  of  the  unsold  lands,  and  closing  the  offices ;  but  a  uni 
versal  system  of  graduation,  lowering  prices  at  short  intervals, 
and  by  large  degrees,  could  have  no  other  effect  than  a  general 
depression  of  price  in  regard  to  the  whole  mass,  and  would  evi 
dently  be  great  mismanagement  of  the  public  property.  This 
convention,  Sir,  will  think  it  singular  enough,  that  a  reduction 
of  prices  of  the  public  lands  should  have  been  demanded  on  the 
ground  that  other  impositions  for  revenue,  such  as  the  duty  on  tea 
and  coffee,  have  been  removed;  thus  considering  and  treating  the 
sums  received  for  lands  sold  as  a  tax,  a  burden,  an  imposition, 
and  a  great  drain  on  the  means  and  the  industry  of  the  new 
States.  A  man  goes  from  New  England  to  one  of  the  Western 
States,  buys  a  hundred  acres  of  the  best  land  in  the  world  for 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  pays  his  money,  and  re 
ceives  an  indisputable  title ;  and  immediately  some  one  stands 


252  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

up  in  Congress  to  call  this  operation  the  laying  of  a  tax,  the  im 
position  of  a  burden;  and  the  whole  of  these  purchases  and 
payments,  taken  together,  are  represented  as  an  intolerable  drain 
on  the  money  and  the  industry  of  the  new  States.  I  know  not, 
Sir,  which  deserves  to  pass  for  the  original,  and  which  for  the 
copy;  but  this  reasoning  is  not  unlike  that  which  maintains 
that  the  trading  community  of  the  West  will  be  exhausted  and 
ruined  by  the  privilege  of  borrowing  money  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  at  six  per  cent,  interest ;  this  interest  being,  as  is 
said  in  the  veto  message,  a  burden  upon  their  industry,  and  a 
drain  of  then:  currency,  which  no  country  can  bear  without 
inconvenience  and  distress ! 

It  was  in  a  forced  connection  with  the  reduction  of  duties  of 
impost,  that  the  subject  of  the  public  lands  was  referred  to  the 
Committee  of  Manufactures  in  the  Senate,  at  the  late  session 
of  Congress.  This  was  a  legislative  movement,  calculated  to 
throw  on  Mr.  Clay,  who  was  acting  a  leading  part  on  the  sub 
ject  of  the  tariff  and  the  reduction  of  duties,  a  new  and  delicate 
responsiblity.  From  this  responsibility,  however,  Mr.  Clay  did 
not  shrink.  He  took  up  the  subject,  and  his  report  upon  it,  and 
his  speech  delivered  afterwards  in  defence  of  the  report,  are,  in 
my  opinion,  among  the  very  ablest  of  the  efforts  which  have 
distinguished  his  long  public  life.  I  desire  to  commend  their 
perusal  to  every  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  They  will  show  him 
the  deep  interest  of  all  the  States,  his  own  among  the  rest,  in 
the  security,  and  proper  management,  and  disposal,  of  the  pub 
lic  domain.  Founded  on  the  report  of  the  committee,  Mr.  Clay 
introduced  a  bill,  providing  for  the  distribution  among  all  the 
States,  according  to  population,  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of 
the  public  lands  for  five  years,  first  making  a  deduction  of  a  con 
siderable  percentage  in  favor  of  the  new  States ;  the  sums  thus 
received  by  the  States  to  be  disposed  of  by  them  in  favor  of  ed 
ucation,  internal  improvement,  or  colonization,  as  each  State 
might  choose  for  itself.  This  bill  passed  the  Senate.  It  was 
vigorously  opposed  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  the 
main  body  of  the  friends  of  the  administration,  and  finally  lost 
by  a  small  majority.  By  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  Massachu 
setts  would  have  received,  as  her  dividend,  at  the  present  av 
erage  rate  of  sales,  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  thousand  dol 
lars  a  year. 


AT  WORCESTER.  253 

I  am  free  to  confess,  Sir,  that  I  had  hoped  to  see  some  unob 
jectionable  way  of  disposing  of  this  subject,  with  the  observance 
of  justice  towards  all  the  States,  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States  itself,  without  a  distribution  through  the  interven 
tion  of  the  State  governments.  Such  a  way,  however,  I  have 
not  discovered.  I  therefore  voted  for  the  bill  of  the  last  session. 

Mr.  President,  let  me  remind  the  meeting  of  the  great  extent 
of  this  public  property. 

Only  twenty  millions  of  acres  have  been  as  yet  sold,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  government.  One  hundred  and  twenty 
millions,  or  about  that  quantity,  are  now  cleared  from  the  Indian 
title,  surveyed  into  townships,  ranges,  and  sections,  and  ready 
in  the  market  for  sale.  I  think,  Sir,  the  whole  surface  of  Mas 
sachusetts  embraces  about  six  millions  of  acres;  so  that  the 
United  States  have  a  body  of  land,  now  surveyed  and  in  mar 
ket,  equal  to  twenty  States,  each  of  the  size  of  Massachusetts. 
But  this  is  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  whole  domain,  much 
the  greater  part  being  yet  unsurveyed,  and  much,  too,  subject  to 
the  original  Indian  title.  The  present  income  to  the  treasury 
from  the  sales  of  land  is  estimated  at  three  millions  of  dollars  a 
year.  The  meeting  will  thus  see,  Sir,  how  important  a  subject 
this  is,  and  how  highly  it  becomes  the  country  to  guard  this  vast 
property  against  perversion  and  bad  management. 

Mr.  President,  among  the  bills  which  failed,  at  the  last  session, 
for  want  of  the  President's  approval,  was  one  in  which  this  State 
had  a  great  pecuniary  interest.  It  was  the  bill  for  the  payment 
of  interest  to  the  States  on  the  funds  advanced  by  them  during 
the  war,  the  principal  of  which  had  been  paid,  or  assumed,  by 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  Some  sessions  ago,  a 
bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  by  my  worthy  colleague, 
and  passed  into  a  law,  for  paying  a  large  part  of  the  principal 
sum  advanced  by  Massachusetts  for  militia  expenses  for  de 
fence  of  the  country.  This  has  been  paid.  The  residue  of  the 
claim  is  in  the  proper  course  of  examination  ;  and  such  parts  of 
it  as  ought  to  be  allowed  will  doubtless  be  paid  hereafter,  vetos 
being  out  of  the  way,  be  it  always  understood.  In  the  late  bill, 
it  was  proposed  that  interest  should  be  paid  to  the  States  on 
these  advances,  in  cases  where  it  had  not  been  already  paid.  It 
passed  both  Houses.  I  recollect  no  opposition  to  it  in  the  Sen- 

VOL.  i.  22 


254  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

ate,  nor  do  I  remember  to  have  heard  of  any  considerable  objec 
tion  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  argument  for  it  lay 
in  its  own  obvious  justice ;  a  justice  too  apparent,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  to  be  denied  by  any  one.  I  left  Congress,  Sir,  a  day  or  two 
before  its  adjournment,  and,  meeting  some  friends  in  this  village 
on  my  way  home,  we  exchanged  congratulations  on  this  addi 
tional  act  of  justice  thus  rendered  to  Massachusetts,  as  well  as 
other  States.  But  I  had  hardly  reached  Framingham,  before  I 
learned  that  our  congratulations  were  premature.  The  Presi 
dent's  signature  had  been  refused,  and  the  bill  was  not  a  law! 
The  only  reason  which  I  have  ever  heard  for  this  refusal  is,  that 
Congress  had  not  been  in  the  practice  of  allowing  interest  on 
claims.  This  is  not  true,  as  a  universal  rule ;  but  if  it  were, 
might  not  Congress  be  trusted  with  the  maintenance  of  its  own 
rules  ?  Might  it  not  make  exceptions  to  them  for  good  cause  ? 
There  is  no  doubt  that,  in  regard  to  old  and  long-neglected 
claims,  it  has  been  customary  not  to  allow  interest;  but  the 
Massachusetts  claim  was  not  of  this  character,  nor  were  the 
claims  of  other  States.  None  of  them  had  remained  unpaid  for 
want  of  presentment.  The  executive  and  legislature  of  this 
Commonwealth  have  never  omitted  to  press  her  demand  for  jus 
tice,  and  her  delegates  in  Congress  have  endeavored  to  dis- 
-;harge  their  duty  by  supporting  that  demand.  It  has  been 
already  decided,  in  repeated  instances,  as  well  in  regard  to  States 
as  to  individuals,  that  when  money  has  been  actually  borrowed, 
for  objects  for  which  the  general  government  ought  to  provide, 
interest  paid  on  such  borrowed  money  shall  be  refunded  by  the 
United  States.  Now,  Sir,  would  it  not  be  a  distinction  without 
a  difference  to  allow  interest  in  such  a  case,  and  yet  refuse  it  in 
another,  in  which  the  State  had  not  borrowed  the  money,  and 
paid  interest  for  it,  but  had  raised  it  by  taxation,  or,  as  I  believe 
was  the  case  with  Massachusetts,  by  the  sale  of  valuable  stocks, 
bearing'  interest  ?  Is  it  not  apparent,  that,  in  her  case,  as  clearly 
as  in  that  of  a  borrowing  State,  she  has  actually  lost  the  inter 
est?  Can  any  man  maintain  that  between  these  two  cases 
there  is  any  sound  distinction,  in  law,  in  equity,  or  in  morals  ? 
The  refusal  to  sign  this  bill  has  deprived  Massachusetts  and 
Maine  of  a  very  large  sum  of  money,  justly  due  to  them.  It  is 
now  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  since  the  money  was  advanced ;  and 
it  was  advanced  for  the  most  necessary  and  praiseworthy  public 


AT  WORCESTER.  255 

purposes.  The  interest  on  the  sum  already  refunded,  and  on 
that  which  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  be  hereafter  refunded, 
is  not  less  ih&njive  hundred  thousand  dollars.  But  for  the  Presi 
dent's  refusal,  in  this  unusual  mode,  to  give  his  approbation  to 
a  bill  which  had  passed  Congress  almost  unanimously,  these 
two  States  would  already  have  been  in  the  receipt  of  a  very  con 
siderable  portion  of  this  money,  and  the  residue,  to  be  received 
in  due  season,  would  have  been  made  sure  to  them. 

Mr.  President,  I  do  not  desire  to  raise  mere  pecuniary  inter 
ests  to  an  undue  importance  in  political  matters.  I  admit  there 
are  principles  and  objects  of  paramount  obligation  and  impor 
tance.  I  would  not  oppose  the  President  merely  because  he  has 
refused  to  the  State  what  I  thought  her  entitled  to,  in  a  matter 
of  money,  provided  he  had  made  known  his  reasons,  and  they 
had  appeared  to  be  such  as  might  fairly  influence  an  intelligent 
and  honest  mind.  But  in  a  matter  of  such  great  and  direct  im 
portance  to  a  State,  where  the  justice  of  the  case  is  so  plain, 
that  men  agree  in  it  who  agree  in  hardly  any  thing  else,  where 
her  claim  has  passed  Congress  without  considerable  opposition 
in  either  House,  a  refusal  to  approve  the  bill  without  giving  the 
slightest  reason,  the  taking  advantage  of  the  rising  of  Congress 
to  give  it  a  silent  go-by,  is  an  act  that  may  well  awaken  the 
attention  of  the  people  in  the  States  concerned.  It  is  an  act 
requiring  close  examination.  It  is  an  act  which  calls  loudly  for 
justification  by  its  author.  And  now,  Sir,  I  will  close  what  I 
have  to  say  on  this  particular  subject  by  stating,  that,  on  the 
22d  of  March,  1832,  the  President  did  actually  approve  and  sign 
a  bill,  in  favor  of  South  Carolina,  by  which  it  was  enacted  that 
her  claim  for  interest  upon  money  actually  expended  by  her  for 
military  stores  during  the  late  war  should  be  settled  and  paid ; 
the  money  so  expended  having'  been  drawn  by  the  Stale  from  a 
fund  upon  which  she  was  receiving-  interest.  This  was  precisely 
the  case  of  Massachusetts. 

Mr.  President,  I  now  approach  an  inquiry  of  a  far  deeper  and 
more  affecting  interest.  Are  the  principles  and  measures  of  the 
administration  dangerous  to  the  Constitution  and  to  the  union 
of  the  States  ?  Sir,  I  believe  them  to  be  so,  and  I  shall  state 
the  grounds  of  that  belief. 

In  the  first  place,  any  administration  is  dangerous  to  the 


256  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

Constitution  and  to  the  union  of  the  States,  which  denies  the 
essential  powers  of  the  Constitution,  and  thus  strips  it  of  the 
capacity  to  do  the  good  intended  by  it. 

The  principles  embraced  by  the  administration,  and  expressed 
in  the  veto  message,  are  evidently  hostile  to  the  whole  system 
of  protection  by  duties  of  impost,  on  constitutional  grounds. 
Here,  then,  is  one  great  power  struck  at  once  out  of  the  Consti 
tution,  and  one  great  end  of  its  adoption  defeated.  And  while 
this  power  is  thus  struck  out  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  clear  that 
it  exists  nowhere  else,  since  the  Constitution  expressly  takes  it 
away  from  all  the  States. 

The  veto  message  denies  the  constitutional  power  of  creating 
or  continuing  such  an  institution  as  our  whole  experience  has 
approved,  for  maintaining  a  sound,  uniform,  national  currency, 
and  for  the  safe  collection  of  revenue.  Here  is  another  power, 
long  used,  and  now  lopped  off.  And  this  power,  too,  thus  lopped 
off  from  the  Constitution,  is  evidently  not  within  the  power  of 
any  of  the  individual  States.  No  State  can  maintain  a  national 
currency ;  no  State  institution  can  render  to  the  revenue  the  ser 
vices  performed  by  a  national  institution. 

The  principles  of  the  administration  are  hostile  to  internal 
improvements.  Here  is  another  power,  heretofore  exercised  in 
many  instances,  now  denied.  The  administration  denies  the 
power,  except  with  qualifications  which  cast  an  air  of  ridicule 
over  the  whole  subject;  being  founded  on  such  distinctions  as 
between  salt  water  and  fresh  water,  places  above  custom-houses 
and  places  below,  and  others  equally  extraordinary. 

Now,  Sir,  in  all  these  respects,  as  well  as  in  others,  I  think  the 
principles  of  the  administration  are  at  war  with  the  true  princi 
ples  of  the  Constitution ;  and  that,  by  the  zeal  and  industry 
which  it  exerts  to  support  its  own  principles,  it  does  daily 
weaken  the  Constitution,  and  does  put  in  doubt  its  long  contin 
uance.  The  inroad  of  to-day  opens  the  way  for  an  easier  in 
road  to-morrow.  When  any  one  essential  part  is  rent  away,  or, 
what  is  nearer  the  truth,  when  many  essential  parts  are  rent 
away,  who  is  there  to  tell  us  how  long  any  other  part  is  to  re 
main  ? 

Sir,  our  condition  is  singularly  paradoxical.  We  have  an 
administration  opposed  to  the  Constitution ;  we  have  an  oppo 
sition  which  is  the  main  support  of  the  government  and  the 


AT  WORCESTER.  257 

laws.  We  have  an  administration  denying  to  the  very  gov 
ernment  which  it  administers  powers  that  have  been  exercised 
for  forty  years ;  it  denies  the  protective  power,  the  bank  power, 
and  the  power  of  internal  improvement.  The  great  and  lead 
ing  measures  of  the  national  legislature  are  all  resisted  by  it. 
These,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  depend  on  the  opposition  for 
support.  We  have,  in  truth,  an  opposition,  without  which  it 
would  be  difficult  for  the  government  to  get  along  at  all.  I 
appeal  to  every  member  of  Congress  present,  (and  I  am  happy 
to  see  many  here,)  to  say  what  would  now  become  of  the 
government,  if  all  the  members  of  the  opposition  were  with 
drawn  from  Congress.  For  myself,  I  declare  my  own  convic 
tion  that  its  continuance  would  probably  be  very  short.  Take 
away  the  opposition  from  Congress,  and  let  us  see  what  would 
probably  be  done,  the  first  session.  The  TARIFF  would  be  en 
tirely  repealed.  Every  enactment  having  protection  by  duties 
as  its  main  object  would  be  struck  from  the  statute-book.  This 
would  be  the  first  thing  done.  Every  work  of  internal  improve 
ment  would  be  stopped.  This  would  follow,  as  matter  of  course. 
The  bank  would  go  down,  and  a  treasury  money  agency  would 
take  its  place.  The  Judiciary  Act  of  1789  would  be  repealed,  so 
that  the  Supreme  Court  should  exercise  no  power  of  revision 
over  State  decisions.  And  who  would  resist  the  doctrines  of 
NULLIFICATION  ?  Look,  Sir,  to  the  votes  of  Congress  for  the 
last  three  years,  and  you  will  see  that  each  of  these  things 
would,  in  all  human  probability,  take  place  at  the  next  session, 
if  the  opposition  were  to  be  withdrawn.  The  Constitution  is 
threatened,  therefore,  imminently  threatened,  by  the  very  fact 
that  those  intrusted  with  its  administration  are  hostile  to  its  es 
sential  powers. 

But,  Sir,  in  my  opinion,  a  yet  greater  danger  threatens  the 
Constitution  and  the  government ;  and  that  is  from  the  attempt 
to  extend  the  power  of  the  executive  at  the  expense  of  all  the 
other  branches  of  the  government,  and  of  the  people  themselves. 
Whatever  accustomed  power  is  denied  to  the  Constitution, 
whatever  accustomed  power  is  denied  to  Congress,  or  to  the 
judiciary,  none  is  denied  to  the  executive.  Here  there  is  no  re 
trenchment  ;  here  no  apprehension  is  felt  for  the  liberties  of  the 
people ;  here  it  is  not  thought  necessary  to  erect  barriers  against 
corruption. 

2?* 


258  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN   CONVENTION 

I  begin,  Sir,  with  the  subject  of  removals  from  office  for  opin 
ion's  sake,  one  of  the  most  signal  instances,  as  I  think,  of  the 
attempt  to  extend  executive  power.  This  has  been  a  leading 
measure,  a  cardinal  point,  in  the  course  of  the  administration. 
It  has  proceeded,  from  the  first,  on  a  settled  proscription  for  po 
litical  opinions ;  and  this  system  it  has  carried  into  operation  to 
the  full  extent  of  its  ability.  The  President  has  not  only  filled 
all  vacancies  with  his  own  friends,  generally  those  most  distin 
guished  as  personal  partisans,  but  he  has  turned  out  political 
opponents,  and  thus  created  vacancies,  in  order  that  he  might 
fill  them  with  his  own  friends.  I  think  the  number  of  removals 
and  appointments  is  said  to  be  two  thousand.  While  the  ad 
ministration  and  its  friends  have  been  attempting  to  circum 
scribe  and  to  decry  the  powers  belonging  to  other  branches,  it 
has  thus  seized  into  its  own  hands  a  patronage  most  pernicious 
and  corrupting,  an  authority  over  men's  means  of  living  most 
tyrannical  and  odious,  and  a  power  to  punish  free  men  for  po 
litical  opinions  altogether  intolerable. 

You  will  remember,  Sir,  that  the  Constitution  says  not  one 
word  about  the  President's  power  of  removal  from  office.  It  is 
a  power  raised  entirely  by  construction.  It  is  a  constructive 
power,  introduced  at  first  to  meet  cases  of  extreme  public  ne 
cessity.  It  has  now  become  coextensive  with  the  executive 
will,  calling  for  no  necessity,  requiring  no  exigency  for  its  ex 
ercise;  to  be  employed  at  all  times,  without  control,  without 
question,  without  responsibility.  When  the  question  of  the 
President's  power  of  removal  was  debated  in  the  first  Congress, 
those  who  argued  for  it  limited  it  to  extreme  cases.  Cases,  they 
said,  might  arise,  in  which  it  would  be  absolutely  necessary  to 
remove  an  officer  before  the  Senate  could  be  assembled.  An 
officer  might  become  insane ;  he  might  abscond ;  and  from  these 
and  other  supposable  cases,  it  was  said,  the  public  service  might 
materially  suffer  if  the  President  could  not  remove  the  incum 
bent.  And  it  was  further  said,  that  there  was  little  or  no  dan 
ger  of  the  abuse  of  the  power  for  party  or  personal  objects.  No 
President,  it  was  thought,  would  ever  commit  such  an  outrage 
on  public  opinion.  Mr.  Madison,  who  thought  the  power  ought 
to  exist,  and  to  be  exercised  in  cases  of  high  necessity,  declared, 
nevertheless,  that  if  a  President  should  resort  to  the  power  when 
not  required  by  any  public  exigency,  and  merely  for  personal 


AT  WORCESTER.  259 

objects,  he  would  deserve  to  be  impeached.  By  a  very  small 
majority,  —  I  think,  in  the  Senate,  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
Vice-President,  —  Congress  decided  in  favor  of  the  existence  of 
the  power  of  removal,  upon  the  grounds  which  I  have  men 
tioned  ;  granting  the  power  in  a  case  of  clear  and  absolute  ne 
cessity,  and  denying  its  existence  everywhere  else. 

Mr.  President,  we  should  recollect  that  this  question  was  dis 
cussed,  and  thus  decided,  when  Washington  was  in  the  execu 
tive  chair.  Men  knew  that  in  his  hands  the  power  would  not 
be  abused ;  nor  did  they  conceive  it  possible  that  any  of  his  suc 
cessors  could  so  far  depart  from  his  great  and  bright  example, 
as,  by  abuse  of  the  power,  and  by  carrying  that  abuse  to  its  ut 
most  extent,  to  change  the  essential  character  of  the  executive 
from  that  of  an  impartial  guardian  and  executor  of  the  laws 
into  that  of  the  chief  dispenser  of  party  rewards.  Three  or 
four  instances  of  removal  occurred  in  the  first  twelve  years  of 
the  government.  At  the  commencement  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  ad 
ministration,  he  made  several  others,  not  without  producing 
much  dissatisfaction ;  so  much  so,  that  he  thought  it  expedient 
to  give  reasons  to  the  people,  in  a  public  paper,  for  even  the 
limited  extent  to  which  he  had  exercised  the  power.  He  rest 
ed  his  justification  on  particular  circumstances  and  peculiar 
grounds;  which,  whether  substantial  or  not,  showed,  at  least, 
that  he  did  not  regard  the  power  of  removal  as  an  ordinary 
power,  still  less  as  a  mere  arbitrary  one,  to  be  used  as  he 
pleased,  for  whatever  ends  he  pleased,  and  without  responsi 
bility.  As  far  as  I  remember,  Sir,  after  the  early  part  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  administration,  hardly  an  instance  occurred  for  near 
thirty  years.  If  there  were  any  instances,  they  were  few.-  But 
at  the  commencement  of  the  present  administration,  the  prece 
dent  of  these  previous  cases  was  seized  on,  and  a  system^  a  reg 
ular  plan  of  government^  a  well-considered  scheme  for  the  main 
tenance  of  party  power  by  the  patronage  of  office,  and  this  pat 
ronage  to  be  created  by  general  removal,  was  adopted,  and  has 
been  carried  into  full  operation.  Indeed,  before  General  Jack 
son's  inauguration,  the  party  put  the  system  into  practice.  In 
the  last  session  of  Mr.  Adams's  administration,  the  friends  of 
General  Jackson  constituted  a  majority  in  the  Senate ;  and 
nominations,  made  by  Mr.  Adams  to  fill  vacancies  which  had 
occurred  in  the  ordinary  way,  were  postponed,  by  this  major- 


260  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

ity,  beyond  the  3d  of  March,  for  the  purpose^  openly  avowed, 
of  giving  the  nominations  to  General  Jackson.  A  nomination 
for  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  many  others  of  less 
magnitude,  were  thus  disposed  of. 

And  what  did  we  witness,  Sir,  when  the  administration  actu 
ally  commenced,  in  the  full  exercise  of  its  authority  ?  One  uni 
versal  sweep,  one  undistinguishing  blow,  levelled  against  all  who 
were  not  of  the  successful  party.  No  worth,  public  or  private, 
no  service,  civil  or  military,  was  of  power  to  resist  the  relentless 
greediness  of  proscription.  Soldiers  of  the  late  war,  soldiers  of  the 
Revolutionary  war,  the  very  contemporaries  of  the  independence 
of  the  country,  all  lost  their  situations.  No  office  was  too  high, 
and  none  too  low ;  for  office  was  the  spoil,  and  "  all  the  spoils" 
it  is  said,  "  belong  to  the  victors  !  "  If  a  man  holding  an  office 
necessary  for  his  daily  support  had  presented  himself  covered 
with  the  scars  of  wounds  received  in  every  battle,  from  Bunker 
Hill  to  Yorktown,  these  would  not  have  protected  him  against 
this  reckless  rapacity.  Nay,  Sir,  if  Warren  himself  had  been 
among  the  living,  and  had  possessed  any  office  under  govern 
ment,  high  or  low,  he  would  not  have  been  suffered  to  hold  it  a 
single  hour,  unless  he  could  show  that  he  had  strictly  complied 
with  the  party  statutes,  and  had  put  a  well-marked  party  collar 
round  his  own  neck.  Look,  Sir,  to  the  case  of  the  late  venerable 
Major  Melville.  He  was  a  personification  of  the  spirit  of  1776, 
one  of  the  earliest  to  venture  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  He  was 
of  the  Tea  Party ;  one  of  the  very  first  to  expose  himself  to  Brit 
ish  power.  And  his  whole  life  was  consonant  with  this,  its  be 
ginning.  Always  ardent  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  always  a  zeal 
ous  friend  to  his  country,  always  acting  with  the  party  which 
he  supposed  cherished  the  genuine  republican  spirit  most  fer 
vently,  always  estimable  and  respectable  in  private  life,  he 
seemed  armed  against  this  miserable  petty  tyranny  of  party  as 
far  as  man  could  be.  But  he  felt  its  blow,  and  he  fell.  He  held 
an  office  in  the  custom-house,  and  had  held  it  for  a  long  course 
of  years ;  and  he  was  deprived  of  it,  as  if  unworthy  to  serve  the 
country  which  he  loved,  and  for  whose  liberties,  in  the  vigor  of 
his  early  manhood,  he  had  thrust  himself  into  the  very  jaws  of 
its  enemies.  There  was  no  mistake  in  the  matter.  His  charac 
ter,  his  standing,  his  Revolutionary  services,  were  all  well  known ; 
but  they  were  known  to  no  purpose ;  they  weighed  not  one 


AT  WORCESTER.  261 

feather  against  party  pretensions.  It  cost  no  pains  to  remove 
him ;  it  cost  no  compunction  to  wring  his  aged  heart  with  this 
retribution  from  his  country  for  his  services,  his  zeal,  and  his 
fidelity.  Sir,  you  will  bear  witness,*  that,  when  his  successor 
was  nominated  to  the  Senate,  and  the  Senate  were  informed 
who  had  been  removed  to  make  way  for  that  nomination,  its 
members  were  struck  with  horror.  They  had  not  conceived  the 
administration  to  be  capable  of  such  a  thing ;  and  yet,  they 
said,  What  can  we  do?  The  man  is  removed;  we  cannot  re 
call  him ;  we  can  only  act  upon  the  nomination  before  us.  Sir, 
you  and  I  thought  otherwise ;  and  I  rejoice  that  we  did  think 
otherwise.  We  thought  it  our  duty  to  resist  the  nomination  to 
fill  a  vacancy  thus  created.  We  thought  it  our  duty  to  oppose 
this  proscription,  when,  and  where,  and  as,  we  constitutionally 
could.  We  besought  the  Senate  to  go  with  us,  and  to  take  a 
stand  before  the  country  on  this  great  question.  We  invoked 
them  to  try  the  deliberate  sense  of  the  people ;  to  trust  them 
selves  before  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion ;  to  resist  at  first,  to 
resist  at  last,  to  resist  always,  the  introduction  of  this  unsocial, 
this  mischievous,  this  dangerous,  this  belligerent  principle  into 
the  practice  of  the  government. 

Mr.  President,  as  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  civilized  country 
on  earth,  in  which,  on  a  change  of  rulers,  there  is  such  an  in 
quisition  for  *spoil  as  we  have  witnessed  in  this  free  republic. 
The  Inaugural  Address  of  1829  spoke  of  a  searching'  operation 
of  government.  The  most  searching  operation,  Sir,  of  the  pres 
ent  administration,  has  been  its  search  for  office  and  place. 
When,  Sir,  did  any  English  minister,  Whig  or  Tory,  ever  make 
such  an  inquest?  When  did  he  ever  go  down  to  low- water 
mark,  to  make  an  ousting  of  tide-waiters  ?  When  did  he  ever 
take  away  the  daily  bread  of  weighers,  and  gaugers,  and  meas 
urers  ?  When  did  he  ever  go  into  the  villages,  to  disturb  the 
little  post-offices,  the  mail  contracts,  and  every  thing  else  in  the 
remotest  degree  connected  with  government?  Sir,  a  British 
minister  who  should  do  this,  and  should  afterwards  show  his 
head  in  a  British  House  of  Commons,  would  be  received  by  a 
universal  hiss. 


*  Hon.  Nathaniel  Silsbee,  President  of  the  Convention,  was  Mr.  Webster's 
colleague  in  the  Senate  at  the  time  referred  to. 


262  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

I  have  little  to  say  of  the  selections  made  to  fill  vacancies 
thus  created.  It  is  true,  however,  and  it  is  a  natural  conse 
quence  of  the  system  which  has  been  acted  on,  that,  within  the 
last  three  years,  more  nominations  have  been  rejected  on  the 
ground  of  wifitness,  than  in  all  the  preceding  forty  years  of  the 
government.  And  these  nominations,  you  know,  Sir,  could  not 
have  been  rejected  but  by  votes  of  the  President's  own  friends. 
The  cases  were  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  Even  party  attach 
ment  could  not  stand  them.  In  some  not  a  third  of  the  Senate, 
in  others  not  ten  votes,  and  in  others  not  a  single  vote,  could  be 
obtained ;  and  this  for  no  particular  reason  known  only  to  the 
Senate,  but  on  general  grounds  of  the  want  of  character  and 
qualifications ;  on  grounds  known  to  every  body  else,  as  well  as 
to  the  Senate.  All  this,  Sir,  is  perfectly  natural  and  consistent. 
The  same  party  selfishness  which  drives  good  men  out  of  office 
will  push  bad  men  in.  Political  proscription  leads  necessarily 
to  the  filling  of  offices  with  incompetent  persons,  and  to  a  con 
sequent  mal-execution  of  official  duties.  And  in  my  opinion, 
Sir.  this  principle  of  claiming  a  monopoly  of  office  by  the  right 
of  conquest,  unless  the  public  shall  effectually  rebuke  and  restrain 
it,  will  entirely  change  the  character  of  our  government.  It  ele 
vates  party  above  country ;  it  forgets  the  common  weal  in  the 
pursuit  of  personal  emolument ;  it  tends  to  form,  it  does  form, 
we  see  that  it  has  formed,  a  political  combination,  united  by 
no  common  principles  or  opinions  among  its  members,  either 
upon  the  powers  of  the  government,  or  the  true  policy  of  the 
country ;  but  held  together  simply  as  an  association,  under  the 
charm  of  a  popular  head,  seeking  to  maintain  possession  of  the 
government  by  a  vigorous  exercise  of  its  patronage ;  and  for  this 
purpose  agitating,  and  alarming,  and  distressing  social  life  by 
the  exercise  of  a  tyrannical  party  proscription.  Sir,  if  this  course 
of  things  cannot  be  checked,  good  men  will  grow  tired  of  the 
exercise  of  political  privileges.  They  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  popular  elections.  They  will  see  that  such  elections  are 
but  a  mere  selfish  contest  for  office ;  and  they  will  abandon  the 
government  to  the  scramble  of  the  bold,  the  daring,  and  the 
desperate. 

It  seems,  Mr.  President,  to  be  a  peculiar  and  singular  charac 
teristic  of  the  present  administration,  that  it  came  into  power 
on  a  cry  against  abuses,  which  did  not  exist,  and  then,  as  soon 


AT  WORCESTER.  263 

as  it  was  in,  as  if  in  mockery  of  the  perception  and  intelligence 
of  the  people,  it  created  those  very  abuses,  and  carried  them  to 
a  great  length.  Thus  the  chief  magistrate  himself,  before  he 
came  into  the  chair,  in  a  formal  public  paper,  denounced  the 
practice  of  appointing  members  of  Congress  to  office.  He  said, 
that,  if  that  practice  continued,  corruption  would  become  the  order 
of  the  day ;  and,  as  if  to  fasten  and  nail  down  his  own  consis 
tency  to  that  point,  he  declared  that  it  was  due  to  himself  to 
practise  what  he  recommended  to  others.  Yet,  Sir,  as  soon  as  he 
was  in  power,  these  fastenings  gave  way,  the  nails  all  flew,  and 
the  promised  consistency  remains  a  striking  proof  of  the  manner 
in  which  political  assurances  are  sometimes  fulfilled.  He  has 
already  appointed  more  members  of  Congress  to  office  than  any 
of  his  predecessors,  in  the  longest  period  of  administration.  Be 
fore  his  time,  there  was  no  reason  to  complain  of  these  appoint 
ments.  They  had  not  been  numerous  under  any  administra 
tion.  Under  this,  they  have  been  numerous,  and  some  of  them 
such  as  may  well  justify  complaint. 

Another  striking  instance  of  the  exhibition  of  the  same  char 
acteristics  may  be  found  in  the  sentiments  of  the  Inaugural 
Address,  and  in  the  subsequent  practice,  on  the  subject  of  inter- 
fering  ivith  the  freedom  of  elections.  Tfhe  Inaugural  Address 
declares,  that  it  is  necessary  to  reform  abuses  which  have  brought 
the  patronage  of  the  government  into  conflict  ivith  the  freedom  of 
elections.  And  what  has  been  the  subsequent  practice  ?  Look 
to  the  newspapers ;  look  to  the  published  letters  of  officers  of  the 
government,  advising,  exhorting,  soliciting,  friends  and  parti 
sans  to  greater  exertions  in  the  cause  of  the  party ;  see  all  done, 
everywhere,  which  patronage  and  power  can  do,  to  affect,  not 
only  elections  in  the  general  government,  but  also  in  every  State 
government,  and  then  say,  how  well  this  promise  of  reforming 
abuses  has  been  kept.  At  what  former  period,  under  what 
former  administration,  did  public  officers  of  the  United  States 
thus  interfere  in  elections?  Certainly,  Sir,  never.  In  this  re 
spect,  then,  as  well  as  in  others,  that  which  was  not  true  as  a 
charge  against  previous  administrations  would  have  been  true, 
if  it  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  prophecy  respecting  the  acts  of 
the  present. 

But  there  is  another  attempt  to  grasp  and  to  wield  a  power 


264  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

over  public  opinion,  of  a  still  more  daring  character,  and  far 
more  dangerous  effects. 

In  all  popular  governments,  a  FREE  PRESS  is  the  most  impor 
tant  of  all  agents  and  instruments.  It  not  only  expresses  public 
opinion,  but,  to  a  very  great  degree,  it  contributes  to  form  that 
opinion.  It  is  an  engine  for  good  or  for  evil,  as  it  may  be 
directed ;  but  an  engine  of  which  nothing  can  resist  the  force. 
The  conductors  of  the  press,  in  popular  governments,  occupy  a 
place,  in  the  social  and  political  system,  of  the  very  highest  con 
sequence.  They  wear  the  character  of  public  instructors.  Their 
daily  labors  bear  directly  on  the  intelligence,  the  morals,  the 
taste,  and  the  public  spirit  of  the  country.  Not  only  are  they 
journalists,  recording  political  occurrences,  but  they  discuss  prin 
ciples,  they  comment  on  measures,  they  canvass  characters; 
they  hold  a  power  over  the  reputation,  the  feelings,  the  happi 
ness,  of  individuals.  The  public  ear  is  always  open  to  their 
addresses,  the  public  sympathy  easily  made  responsive  to  their 
sentiments.  It  is  indeed,  Sir,  a  distinction  of  high  honor,  that 
theirs  is  the  only  profession  expressly  protected  and  guarded  by 
constitutional  enactments.  Their  employment  soars  so  high, 
in  its  general  consequences  it  is  so  intimately  connected  with 
the  public  happiness,  that  its  security  is  provided  for  by  the  fun 
damental  law.  While  it  acts  in  a  manner  worthy  of  this  dis 
tinction,  the  press  is  a  fountain  of  light,  and  a  source  of  glad 
dening  warmth.  It  instructs  the  public  mind,  and  animates  the 
spirit  of  patriotism.  Its  loud  voice  suppresses  every  thing  which 
would  raise  itself  against  the  public  liberty;  and  its  blasting 
rebuke  causes  incipient  despotism  to  perish  in  the  bud. 

But  remember,  Sir,  that  these  are  the  attributes  of  a  FREE 
press  only.  And  is  a  press  that  is  purchased  or  pensioned  more 
free  than  a  press  that  is  fettered?  Can  the  people  look  for 
truths  to  partial  sources,  whether  rendered  partial  through  fear 
or  through  favor  ?  Why  shall  not  a  manacled  press  be  trusted 
with  the  maintenance  and  defence  of  popular  rights  ?  Because 
it  is  supposed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  a  power  which  may 
prove  greater  than  the  love  of  truth.  Such  a  press  may  screen 
abuses  in  government,  or  be  silent.  It  may  fear  to  speak.  And 
may  it  not  fear  to  speak,  too,  when  its  conductors,  if  they  speak 
in  any  but  one  way,  may  lose  their  means  of  livelihood  ?  Is 
dependence  on  government  for  bread  no  temptation  to  screen 


AT  WORCESTER.  265 

its  abuses  ?  Will  the  press  always  speak  the  truth,  when  the 
truth,  if  spoken,  may  be  the  means  of  silencing  it  for  the  future? 
Is  the  truth  in  no  danger,  is  the  watchman  under  no  temptation, 
when  he  can  neither  proclaim  the  approach  of  national  evils, 
nor  seem  to  descry  them,  without  the  loss  of  his  place  ? 

Mr.  President,  an  open  attempt  to  secure  the  aid  and  friend 
ship  of  the  public  press,  by  bestowing  the  emoluments  of  office 
on  its  active  conductors,  seems  to  me,  of  every  thing  we  have 
witnessed,  to  be  the  most  reprehensible.  It  degrades  both  the 
government  and  the  press.  As  far  as  its  natural  effect  extends, 
it  turns  the  palladium  of  liberty  into  an  engine  of  party.  It 
brings  the  agency,  activity,  energy,  and  patronage  of  government 
all  to  bear,  with  united  force,  on  the  means  of  general  intelli 
gence,  and  on  the  adoption  or  rejection  of  political  opinions.  It 
so  completely  perverts  the  true  object  of  government,  it  so  en 
tirely  revolutionizes  our  whole  system,  that  the  chief  business  of 
those  in  power  is  directed  rather  to  the  propagation  of  opinions 
favorable  to  themselves,  than  to  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
This  propagation  of  opinions,  through  the  press,  becomes  the 
main  administrative  duty.  Some  fifty  or  sixty  editors  of  lead 
ing  journals  have  been  appointed  to  office  by  the  present  execu 
tive.  A  stand  has  been  made  against  this  proceeding,  in  the 
Senate,  with  partial  success ;  but,  by  means  of  appointments 
which  do  not  come  before  the  Senate,  or  other  means,  the  num 
ber  has  been  carried  to  the  extent  I  have  mentioned.  Certainly, 
Sir,  the  editors  of  the  public  journals  are  not  to  be  disfranchised. 
Certainly  they  are  fair  candidates  either  for  popular  elections,  or 
a  just  participation  in  office.  Certainly  they  reckon  in  their 
number  some  of  the  first  geniuses,  the  best  scholars,  and  the 
most  honest  and  well-principled  men  in  the  country.  But  the 
complaint  is  against  the  system,  against  the  practice,  against  the 
undisguised  attempt  to  secure  the  favor  of  the  press  by  means 
addressed  to  its  pecuniary  interest,  and  these  means,  too,  drawn 
from  the  public  treasury,  being  no  other  than  the  appointed  com 
pensations  for  the  performance  of  official  duties.  Sir,  the  press 
itself  should  resent  this.  Its  own  character  for  purity  and  indepen 
dence  is  at  stake.  It  should  resist  a  connection  rendering  it  ob 
noxious  to  so  many  imputations.  It  should  point  to  its  honora 
ble  denomination  in  our  constitutions  of  government,  and  it  should 
maintain  the  character,  there  ascribed  to  it,  of  a  FREE  PRESS. 

VOL.  i.  23 


266  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

There  can,  Sir,  be  no  objection  to  the  appointment  of  an  ed 
itor  to  office,  if  he  is  the  fittest  man.  There  can  be  no  objection 
to  considering  the  services  which,  in  that  or  in  any  other  capa 
city,  he  may  have  rendered  his  country.  He  may  have  done 
much  to  maintain  her  rights  against  foreign  aggression,  and  her 
character  against  insult.  He  may  have  honored,  as  well  as 
defended  her ;  and  may,  therefore,  be  justly  regarded  and  select 
ed,  in  the  choice  of  faithful  public  agents.  But  the  ground  of 
complaint  is,  that  the  aiding,  by  the  press,  of  the  election  of  an 
individual,  is  rewarded,  by  that  same  individual,  with  the  gift  of 
moneyed  offices.  Men  are  turned  out  of  office,  and  others  put 
in,  and  receive  salaries  from  the  public  treasury,  on  the  ground, 
either  openly  avowed  or  falsely  denied,  that  they  have  rendered 
service  in  the  election  of  the  very  individual  who  makes  this  re 
moval  and  makes  this  appointment.  Every  man,  Sir,  must  see 
that  this  is  a  vital  stab  at  the  purity  of  the  press.  It  not  only 
assails  its  independence,  by  addressing  sinister  motives  to  it, 
but  it  furnishes  from  the  public  treasury  the  means  of  exciting 
these  motives.  It  extends  the  executive  power  over  the  press 
in  a  most  daring  manner.  It  operates  to  give  a  direction  to 
opinion,  not  favorable  to  the  government,  in  the  aggregate; 
not  favorable  to  the  Constitution  and  laws ;  not  favorable  to  the 
legislature ;  but  favorable  to  the  executive  alone.  The  conse 
quence  often  is,  just  what  might  be  looked  for,  that  the  portion 
of  the  press  thus  made  fast  to  the  executive  interest  denounces 
Congress,  denounces  the  judiciary,  complains  of  the  laws,  and 
quarrels  with  the  Constitution.  This  exercise  of  the  right  of 
appointment  to  this  end  is  an  augmentation,  and  a  vast  one, 
of  the  executive  power,  singly  and  alone.  It  uses  that  power 
strongly  against  all  other  branches  of  the  government,  and  it 
uses  it  strongly,  too,  for  any  struggle  which  it  may  be  called  on 
to  make  with  the  public  opinion  of  the  country.  Mr.  President, 
I  will  quit  this  topic.  There  is  much  in  it,  in  my  judgment, 
affecting,  not  only  the  purity  and  independence  of  the  press,  but 
also  the  character  and  honor,  the  peace  and  security,  of  the  gov 
ernment.  I  leave  it,  in  all  its  bearings,  to  the  consideration  o_ 
the  people. 

Mr.  President,  among  the  novelties  introduced  into  the  gov 
ernment  by  the  present  administration  is  the  frequent  use  of  the 


AT  WORCESTER.  267 

President's  negative  on  acts  of  Congress.  Under  former  Presi 
dents,  this  power  has  been  deemed  an  extraordinary  one,  to  be 
exercised  only  in  peculiar  and  marked  cases.  It  was  vested  in 
the  President,  doubtless,  as  a  guard  against  hasty  or  inconsider 
ate  legislation,  and  against  any  act,  inadvertently  passed,  which 
might  seem  to  encroach  on  the  just  authority  of  other  branches 
of  the  government.  I  do  not  recollect  that,  by  all  General  Jack 
son's  predecessors,  this  power  was  exercised  more  than  four  or 
five  times.  Not  having  recurred  to  the  journals,  I  cannot,  of 
course,  be  sure  that  I  am  numerically  accurate  in  this  particular ; 
but  such  is  my  belief.  I  recollect  no  instance  in  the  time  of  Mr. 
John  Adams,  Mr.  Jefferson,  or  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams.  The 
only  cases  which  occur  to  me  are  two  in  General  Washington's 
administration,  two  in  Mr.  Madison's,  and  one  in  Mr.  Monroe's. 
There  may  be  some  others ;  but  we  all  know  that  it  is  a  power 
which  has  been  very  sparingly  and  reluctantly  used,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  government.  The  cases,  Sir,  to  which  I  have 
now  referred,  were  cases  in  which  the  President  returned  the  bill 
with  objections.  The  silent  veto  is,  I  believe,  the  exclusive  adop 
tion  of  the  present  administration.  I  think,  indeed,  that,  some 
years  ago,  a  bill,  by  inadvertence  or  accident,  failed  to  receive 
the  President's  signature,  and  so  did  not  become  a  law.  But  I 
am  not  aware  of  any  instance,  before  the  present  administration, 
in  which  the  President  has,  by  design,  omitted  to  sign  a  bill, 
and  yet  has  not  returned  it  to  Congress.  But  since  that  ad 
ministration  came  into  power,  the  veto,  in  both  kinds,  has  been 
repeatedly  applied.  In  the  case  of  the  Maysville  Road,  the 
Montgomery  Road,  and  the  bank,  we  have  had  the  veto,  with 
reasons.  In  an  internal  improvement  bill  of  a  former  session,  in 
a  similar  bill  at  the  late  session,  and  in  the  State  interest  bill,  we 
have  had  the  silent  veto,  or  refusal  without  reasons. 

Now,  Sir,  it  is  to  be  considered,  that  the  President  has  the 
power  of  recommending  measures  to  Congress.  Through  his 
friends,  he  may  and  does  oppose,  also,  any  legislative  movement 
which  he  does  not  approve.  If,  in  addition  to  this,  he  may  exer 
cise  a  silent  veto,  at  his  pleasure,  on  all  the  bills  presented  to 
him  during  the  last  ten  days  of  the  session ;  if  he  may  refuse 
assent  to  them  all,  without  being  called  upon  to  assign  any 
reasons  whatever,  —  it  will  certainly  be  a  great  practical  aug 
mentation  of  his  power.  Any  one,  who  looks  at  a  volume  of  the 


$268  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

statutes,  will  see  that  a  great  portion  of  all  the  laws  are  actually 
passed  within  the  last  ten  days  of  each  session.  If  the  Presi 
dent  is  at  liberty  to  negative  any  or  all  of  these  laws,  at  pleas 
ure,  or  rather,  to  refuse  to  render  the  bills  laws  by  approving 
them,  and  still  may  neglect  to  return  them  to  Congress  for  re 
newed  action,  he  will  hold  a  very  important  control  over  the 
legislation  of  this  country.  The  day  of  adjournment  is  usually 
fixed  some  weeks  in  advance.  This  being  fixed,  a  little  activity 
and  perseverance  may  easily,  in  most  cases,  and  perhaps  in  all, 
where  no  alarm  has  been  excited,  postpone  important  pending 
measures  to  a  period  within  ten  days  of  the  close  of  the  session ; 
and  this  operation  subjects  all  such  measures  to  the  discretion 
of  the  President,  who  may  sign  the  bills  or  not,  without  being 
obliged  to  state  his  reasons  publicly. 

The  bill  for  rechartering  the  bank  would  have  been  inevitably 
destroyed  by  the  silent  veto,  if  its  friends  had  not  refused  to  fix 
on  any  term  for  adjournment  before  the  President  should  have 
had  the  bill  in  his  possession  so  long  as  to  be  required  consti 
tutionally  to  sign  it,  or  to  send  it  back  with  his  reasons  for  not 
signing  it.  The  two  houses  did  not  agree,  and  would  not  agree, 
to  fix  a  day  for  adjournment,  until  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  Presi 
dent  ;  and  then  care  was  taken  to  fix  on  such  a  day  as  should 
allow  him  the  whole  constitutional  period.  This  seasonable  pre 
sentment  rescued  the  bill  from  the  power  of  the  silent  negative. 

This  practical  innovation  on  the  mode  of  administering  the 
government,  so  much  at  variance  with  its  general  principles,  and 
so  capable  of  defeating  the  most  useful  acts,  deserves  public 
consideration.  Its  tendency  is  to  disturb  the  harmony  which 
ought  always  to  exist  between  Congress  and  the  executive,  and 
to  turn  that  which  the  Constitution  intended  only  as  an  extra 
ordinary  remedy  for  extraordinary  cases  into  a  common  means 
of  making  executive  discretion  paramount  to  the  discretion  of 
Congress,  in  the  enactment  of  laws. 

Mr.  President,  the  executive  has  not  only  used  these  unaccus 
tomed  means  to  prevent  the  passage  of  laws,  but  it  has  also 
refused  to  enforce  the  execution  of  laws  actually  passed.  An 
eminent  instance  of  this  is  found  in  the  course  adopted  relative 
to  the  Indian  intercourse  law  of  1802.  Upon  being  applied  to, 
in  behalf  of  the  MISSIONARIES,  to  execute  that  law,  for  their 


AT  WORCESTER.  269 

relief  and  protection,  the  President  replied,  that,  the  State  of 
Georgia  having  extended  her  laws  over  the  Indian  territory,  the 
laws  of  Congress  had  thereby  been  superseded.  This  is  the  sub 
stance  of  his  answer,  as  communicated  through  the  Secretary 
of  War.  He  holds,  then,  that  the  law  of  the  State  is  paramount 
to  the  law  of  Congress.  The  Supreme  Court  has  adjudged  this 
act  of  Georgia  to  be  void,  as  being  repugnant  to  a  constitutional 
law  of  the  United  States.  But  the  President  pays  no  more 
regard  to  this  decision  than  to  the  act  of  Congress  itself.  The 
missionaries  remain  in  prison,  held  there  by  a  condemnation 
under  a  law  of  a  State  which  the  supreme  judicial  tribunal 
has  pronounced  to  be  null  and  void.  The  Supreme  Court  have 
decided  that  the  act  of  Congress  is  constitutional ;  that  it  is  a 
binding  statute ;  that  it  has  the  same  force  as  other  laws,  and  is 
as  much  entitled  to  be  obeyed  and  executed  as  other  laws.  The 
President,  on  the  contrary,  declares  that  the  law  of  Congress 
has  been  superseded  by  the  law  of  the  State,  and  therefore  he 
will  not  carry  its  provisions  into  effect.  Now  we  know,  Sir, 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares,  that  that 
Constitution,  and  all  acts  of  Congress  passed  in  pursuance  of  it, 
shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  any  thing  in  any  State  law 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  This  would  seem  to  be  a  plain 
case,  then,  in  which  the  law  should  be  executed.  It  has  been 
solemnly  decided  to  be  in  actual  force,  by  the  highest  judicial 
authority ;  its  execution  is  demanded  for  the  relief  of  free  citi 
zens,  now  suffering  the  pains  of  unjust  and  unlawful  imprison 
ment  ;  yet  the  President  refuses  to  execute  it. 

In  the  case  of  the  Chicago  Road,  some  sessions  ago,  the  Pres 
ident  approved  the  bill,  but  accompanied  his  approval  by  a  mes 
sage,  saying  how  far  he  deemed  it  a  proper  law,  and  how  far, 
therefore,  it  ought  to  be  carried  into  execution. 

In  the  case  of  the  harbor  bill  of  the  late  session,  being  ap 
plied  to  by  a  member  of  Congress  for  directions  for  carrying 
parts  of  the  law  into  effect,  he  declined  giving  them,  and  made  a 
distinction  between  such  parts  of  the  law  as  he  should  cause  to 
be  executed,  and  such  as  he  should  not ;  and  his  right  to  make 
this  distinction  has  been  openly  maintained,  by  those  who  ha 
bitually  defend  his  measures.  Indeed,  Sir,  these,  and  other  in 
stances  of  liberties  taken  with  plain  statute  laws,  flow  naturally 
from  the  principles  expressly  avowed  by  the  President,  under 
23* 


270  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

his  own  hand.  In  that  important  document,  Sir,  upon  which  it 
seems  to  be  his  fate  to  stand  or  to  fall  before  the  American 
people,  the  veto  message,  he  holds  the  following  language :  — 
"  Each  public  officer  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitu 
tion,  swears  that  he  will  support  it  as  ke  understands  it,  and  not 
as  it  is  understood  by  others."  Mr.  President,  the  general  adop 
tion  of  the  sentiments  expressed  in  this  sentence  would  dissolve 
our  government.  It  would  raise  every  man's  private  opinions 
into  a  standard  for  his  own  conduct;  and  there  certainly  is, 
there  can  be,  no  government,  where  every  man  is  to  judge  for 
himself  of  his  own  rights  and  his  own  obligations.  Where 
every  one  is  his  own  arbiter,  force,  and  not  law,  is  the  governing 
power.  He  who  may  judge  for  himself,  and  decide  for  himself, 
must  execute  his  own  decisions ;  and  this  is  the  law  of  force.  I 
confess,  Sir,  it  strikes  me  with  astonishment,  that  so  wild,  so 
disorganizing,  a  sentiment  should  be  uttered  by  a  President  of 
the  United  States.  I  should  think  it  must  have  escaped  from 
its  author  through  want  of  reflection,  or  from  the  habit  of  little 
reflection  on  such  subjects,  if  I  could  suppose  it  possible,  that, 
on  a  question  exciting  so  much  public  attention,  and  of  so  much 
national  importance,  any  such  extraordinary  doctrine  could  find 
its  way,  through  inadvertence,  into  a  formal  and  solemn  public 
act.  Standing  as  it  does,  it  affirms  a  proposition  which  would 
effectually  repeal  all  constitutional  and  all  legal  obligations. 
The  Constitution  declares,  that  every  public  officer,  in  the  State 
governments  as  well  as  in  the  general  government,  shall  take  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This  is 
all.  Would  it  not  have  cast  an  air  of  ridicule  on  the  whole  pro 
vision,  if  the  Constitution  had  gone  on  to  add  the  words,  "  as  he 
understands  it "  ?  What  could  come  nearer  to  a  solemn  farce, 
than  to  bind  a  man  by  oath,  and  still  leave  him  to  be  his  own 
interpreter  of  his  own  obligation?  Sir,  those  who  are  to  execute 
the  laws  have  no  more  a  license  to  construe  them  for  them 
selves,  than  those  whose  only  duty  is  to  obey  them.  Public 
officers  are  bound  to  support  the  Constitution ;  private  citizens 
are  bound  to  obey  it ;  and  there  is  no  more  indulgence  granted 
to  the  public  officer  to  support  the  Constitution  only  as  he 
understands  it,  than  to  a  private  citizen  to  obey  it  only  as  he 
understands  it;  and  what  is  true  of  the  Constitution,  in  this 
respect,  is  equally  true  of  any  law.  Laws  are  to  be  executed, 


AT  WORCESTER.  271 

and  to  be  obeyed,  not  as  individuals  may  interpret  them,  bnt 
according  to  public,  authoritative  interpretation  and  adjudica 
tion.  The  sentiment  of  the  message  would  abrogate  .the  ob 
ligation  of  the  whole  criminal  code.  If  every  man  is  to  judge 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  for  himself,  if  he  is  to  obey 
and  support  them  only  as  he  may  say  he  understands  them,  a 
revolution,  I  think,  would  take  place  in  the  administration  of 
justice ;  and  discussions  about  the  law  of  treason,  murder,  and 
arson  should  be  addressed,  not  to  the  judicial  bench,  but  to 
those  who  might  stand  charged  with  such  offences.  The  object 
of  discussion  should  be,  if  we  run  out  this  notion  to  its  natural 
extent,  to  enlighten  the  culprit  himself  how  he  ought  to  under 
stand  the  law. 

Mr.  President,  how  is  it  possible  that  a  sentiment  so  wild,  and 
so  dangerous,  so  encouraging  to  all  who  feel  a  desire  to  oppose 
the  laws,  and  to  impair  the  Constitution,  should  have  been  ut 
tered  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  at  this  eventful  and 
critical  moment  ?  Are  we  not  threatened  with  dissolution  of 
the  Union  ?  Are  we  not  told  that  the  laws  of  the  government 
shall  be  openly  and  directly  resisted  ?  Is  not  the  whole  country 
looking,  with  the  utmost  anxiety,  to  what  may  be  the  result  of 
these  threatened  courses  ?  And  at  this  very  moment,  so  full  of 
peril  to  the  state,  the  chief  magistrate  puts  forth  opinions  and 
sentiments  as  truly  subversive  of  all  government,  as  absolutely 
in  conflict  with  the  authority  of  the  Constitution,  as  the  wildest 
theories  of  nullification.  Mr.  President,  I  have  very  little  regard 
for  the  law,  or  the  logic,  of  nullification.  But  there  is  not  an 
individual  in  its  ranks,  capable  of  putting  two  ideas  together, 
who,  if  you  will  grant  him  the  principles  of  the  veto  message, 
cannot  defend  all  that  nullification  has  ever  threatened. 

To  make  this  assertion  good,  Sir,  let  us  see  how  the  case 
stands.  The  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  it  is  said,  will  nul 
lify  the  late  revenue  or  tariff  law,  because,  they  say^  it  is  not 
warranted  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  they 
understand  the  Constitution.  They,  as  well  as  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  have  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution. 
Both  he  and  they  have  taken  the  same  oath,  in  the  same  words. 
Now,  Sir,  since  he  claims  the  right  to  interpret  the  Constitution 
as  he  pleases,  how  can  he  deny  the  same  right  to  them  ?  Is 
his  oath  less  stringent  than  theirs?  Has  he  a  prerogative  of 


272  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

dispensation  which  they  do  not  possess  ?  How  can  he  answer 
them,  when  they  tell  him,  that  the  revenue  laws  are  unconstitu 
tional,  as  they  understand  the  Constitution,  and  that  therefore 
they  will  nullify  them  ?  Will  he  reply  to  them,  according  to 
the  doctrines  of  his  annual  message  in  1830,  that  precedent  has 
settled  the  question,  if  it  was  ever  doubtful  ?  They  will  answer 
him  in  his  own  words  in  the  veto  message,  that,  in  such  a  case, 
precedent  is  not  binding.  Will  he  say  to  them,  that  the  revenue 
law  is  a  law  of  Congress,  which  must  be  executed  until  it  shall 
be  declared  void?  They  will  answer  him,  that,  in  other  cases,  he 
has  himself  refused  to  execute  laws  of  Congress  which  had  not 
been  declared  void,  but  which  had  been,  on  the  contrary,  declared 
valid.  Will  he  urge  the  force  of  judicial  decisions  ?  They  will 
answer,  that  he  himself  does  not  admit  the  binding  obligation 
of  such  decisions.  Sir,  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  of 
opinion,  that  an  individual,  called  on  to  execute  a  law,  may 
himself  judge  of  its  constitutional  validity.  Does  nullification 
teach  any  thing  more  revolutionary  than  that  ?  The  President 
is  of  opinion,  that  judicial  interpretations  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws  do  not  bind  the  consciences,  and  ought  not  to  bind 
the  conduct,  of  men.  Is  nullification  at  all  more  disorganiz 
ing  than  that  ?  The  President  is  of  opinion,  that  every  officer 
is  bound  to  support  the  Constitution  only  according  to  what 
ought  to  be,  in  his  private  opinion,  its  construction.  Has  nulli 
fication,  in  its  wildest  flight,  ever  reached  to  an  extravagance 
like  that  ?  No,  Sir,  never.  The  doctrine  of  nullification,  in  my 
judgment  a  most  false,  dangerous,  and  revolutionary  doctrine,  is 
this ;  that  the  State,  or  a  State,  may  declare  the  extent  of  the 
obligations  which  its  citizens  are  under  to  the  United  States ;  in 
other  words,  that  a  State,  by  State  laws  and  State  judicatures, 
may  conclusively  construe  the  Constitution  for  its  own  citizens. 
But  that  every  individual  may  construe  it  for  himself  is  a  re 
finement  on  the  theory  of  resistance  to  constitutional  power,  a 
sublimation  of  the  right  of  being  disloyal  to  the  Union,  a  free 
charter  for  the  elevation  of  private  opinion  above  the  authority 
of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  state,  such  as  was  never  present 
ed  to  the  public  view,  and  the  public  astonishment,  even  by 
nullification  itself.  Its  first  appearance  is  in  the  veto  message. 
Melancholy,  lamentable,  indeed,  Sir,  is  our  condition,  when,  at 
a  moment  of  serious  danger  and  wide-spread  alarm,  such  senti- 


AT  WORCESTER.  273 

ments  are  found  to  proceed  from  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
government.  Sir,  I  cannot  feel  that  the  Constitution  is  safe  in 
such  hands.  I  cannot  feel  that  the  present  administration  is  its 
fit  and  proper  guardian. 

But  let  me  ask,  Sir,  what  evidence  there  is,  that  the  President 
is  himself  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  nullification  :  I  do  not 
say  to  the  political  party  which  now  pushes  these  doctrines,  but 
to  the  doctrines  themselves.  Has  he  anywhere  rebuked  them  ? 
Has  he  anywhere  discouraged  them  ?  Has  his  influence  been 
exerted  to  inspire  respect  for  the  Constitution,  and  to  produce 
obedience  to  the  laws?  Has  he  followed  the  bright  exam 
ple  of  his  predecessors  ?  Has  he  held  fast  by  the  institutions 
of  the  country  ?  Has  he  summoned  the  good  and  the  wise 
around  him  ?  Has  he  admonished  the  country  that  the  Union 
is  in  danger,  and  called  on  all  the  patriotic  to  come  out  in 
its  support  ?  Alas !  Sir,  we  have  seen  nothing,  nothing,  of  all 
this. 

Mr.  President,  I  shall  not  discuss  the  doctrine  of  nullification. 
I  am  sure  it  can  have  no  friends  here.  Gloss  it  and  disguise  it 
as  we  may,  it  is  a  pretence  incompatible  with  the  authority  of 
the  Constitution.  If  direct  separation  be  not  its  only  mode  of 
operation,  separation  is,  nevertheless,  its  direct  consequence. 
That  a  State  may  nullify  a  law  of  the  Union,  and  still  remain 
in  the  Union ;  that  she  may  have  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  the  government,  and  yet  be  at  liberty  to  disobey  and  resist 
that  government ;  that  she  may  partake  in  the  common  coun 
cils,  and  yet  not  be  bound  by  their  results  ;  that  she  may  control 
a  law  of  Congress,  so  that  it  shall  be  one  thing  with  her,  while 
it  is  another  thing  with  the  rest  of  the  States ;  —  all  these  propo 
sitions  seem  to  me  so  absolutely  at  war  with  common  sense  and 
reason,  that  I  do  not  understand  how  any  intelligent  person  can 
yield  the  slightest  assent  to  them.  Nullification,  it  is  in  vain  to 
attempt  to  conceal  it,  is  dissolution ;  it  is  dismemberment ;  it  is 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Union.  If  it  shall  practically  succeed  in 
any  one  State,  from  that  moment  there  are  twenty-four  States  in 
the  Union  no  longer.  Now,  Sir,  I  think  it  exceedingly  probable 
that  the  President  may  come  to  an  open  rupture  with  that  por 
tion  of  his  original  party  which  now  constitutes  what  is  called 
the  Nullification  party.  I  think  it  likely  he  will  oppose  the 
proceedings  of  that  party,  if  they  shall  adopt  measures  coming 


274  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

directly  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  But 
how  will  he  oppose?  What  will  be  his  course  of  remedy? 
Sir,  I  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Convention,  and  of  the 
people,  earnestly  to  this  question,  —  How  will  the  President 
attempt  to  put  down  nullification,  if  he  shall  attempt  it  at  all  ? 

Sir,  for  one,  I  protest  in  advance  against  such  remedies  as  I 
have  heard  hinted.  The  administration  itself  keeps  a  profound 
silence,  but  its  friends  have  spoken  for  it.  We  are  told,  Sir,  that 
the  President  will  immediately  employ  the  military  force,  and  at 
once  blockade  Charleston !  A  military  remedy,  a  remedy  by  di 
rect  belligerent  operation,  has  been  thus  suggested,  and  nothing 
else  has  been  suggested,  as  the  intended  means  of  preserving 
the  Union.  Sir,  there  is  no  little  reason  to  think,  that  this  sug 
gestion  is  true.  We  cannot  be  altogether  unmindful  of  the 
past,  and  therefore  we  cannot  be  altogether  unapprehensive  for 
the  future.  For  one,  Sir,  I  raise  my  voice  beforehand  against 
the  unauthorized  employment  of  military  power,  and  against 
superseding  the  authority  of  the  laws,  by  an  armed  force,  under 
pretence  of  putting  down  nullification.  The  President  has  no 
authority  to  blockade  Charleston  ;  the  President  has  no  authority 
to  employ  military  force,  till  he  shall  be  duly  required  so  to  do, 
by  law,  and  by  the  civil  authorities.  His  duty  is  to  cause  the 
laws  to  be  executed.  His  duty  is  to  support  the  civil  authority. 
His  duty  is,  if  the  laws  be  resisted,  to  employ  the  military  force 
of  the  country,  if  necessary,  for  their  support  and  execution ;  but 
to  do  all  this  in  compliance  only  with  law,  and  with  decisions  of- 
the  tribunals.  If,  by  any  ingenious  devices,  those  who  resist  the 
laws  escape  from  the  reach  of  judicial  authority,  as  it  is  now  pro 
vided  to  be  exercised,  it  is  entirely  competent  to  Congress  to 
make  such  new  provisions  as  the  exigency  of  the  case  may  de 
mand.  These  provisions  undoubtedly  would  be  made.  With  a 
constitutional  and  efficient  head  of  the  government,  with  an  ad 
ministration  really  and  truly  in  favor  of  the  Constitution,  the 
country  can  grapple  with  nullification.  By  the  force  of  reason, 
by  the  progress  of  enlightened  opinion,  by  the  natural,  genuine 
patriotism  of  the  country,  and  by  the  steady  and  well-sustained 
operations  of  law,  the  progress  of  disorganization  may  be  suc 
cessfully  checked,  and  the  Union  maintained.  Let  it  be  remem 
bered,  that,  where  nullification  is  most  powerful,  it  is  not  unop 
posed.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that  they  who  would  break  up 


AT  WORCESTER.  275 

the  Union  by  force  have  to  march  toward  that  object  through 
thick  ranks  of  as  brave  and  good  men  as  the  country  can  show  • 
men  strong  in  character,  strong  in  intelligence,  strong  in  the 
purity  of  their  own  motives,  and  ready,  always  ready,  to  sacri 
fice  their  fortunes  and  their  lives  to  the  preservation  of  the  con 
stitutional  union  of  the  States.  If  we  can  relieve  the  country 
from  an  administration  which  denies  to  the  Constitution  those 
powers  which  are  the  breath  of  its  life ;  if  we  can  place  the  gov 
ernment  in  the  hands  of  its  friends ;  if  we  can  secure  it  against 
the  dangers  of  irregular  and  unlawful  military  force ;  if  it  can  be 
under  the  lead  of  an  administration  whose  moderation,  firmness, 
and  wisdom  shall  inspire  confidence  and  command  respect,  — 
we  may  yet  surmount  the  dangers,  numerous  and  formidable  as 
they  are,  which  surround  us. 

Sir,  I  see  little  prospect  of  overcoming  these  dangers  without 
a  change  of  men.  After  all  that  has  passed,  the  reelection  of 
the  present  executive  will  give  the  national  sanction  to  senti 
ments  and  to  measures  which  will  effectually  change  the  gov 
ernment  ;  which,  in  short,  must  destroy  the  government.  If  the 
President  be  reflected,  with  concurrent  and  cooperating  majori 
ties  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  I  do  not  see,  that,  in  four  years 
more,  all  the  power  which  is  suffered  to  remain  in  the  govern 
ment  will  not  be  held  by  the  executive  hand.  Nullification 
will  proceed,  or  will  be  put  down  by  a  power  as  unconstitutional 
as  itself.  The  revenues  will  be  managed  by  a  treasury  bank. 
The  use  of  the  veto  will  be  considered  as  sanctioned  by  the 
public  voice.  The  Senate,  if  not  "cut  down,"  will  be  bound 
down,  and,  the  President  commanding  the  army  and  the  navy, 
and  holding  all  places  of  trust  to  be  party  property,  what  will 
then  be  left,  Sir,  for  constitutional  reliance  ? 

Sir,  we  have  been  accustomed  to  venerate  the  judiciary,  and 
to  repose  hopes  of  safety  on  that  branch  of  the  government. 
But  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  The  judicial  power  cannot 
stand  for  a  long  time  against  the  executive  power.  The  judges, 
it  is  true,  hold  their  places  by  an  independent  tenure ;  but  they 
are  mortal.  That  which  is  the  common  lot  of  humanity  must 
make  it  necessary  to  renew  the  benches  of  justice.  And  how 
will  they  be  filled  ?  Doubtless,  Sir,  they  will  be  filled  by  judges 
agreeing  with  the  President  in  his  constitutional  opinions.  If 
the  court  is  felt  as  an  obstacle,  the  first  opportunity  and  ev- 


276  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION 

ery  opportunity  will  certainly  be  embraced  to  give  it  less  and 
less  the  character  of  an  obstacle.  Sir,  without  pursuing  these 
suggestions,  I  only  say  that  the  country  must  prepare  itself  for 
any  change  in  the  judicial  department  such  as  it  shall  deliber 
ately  sanction  in  other  departments. 

But,  Sir,  what  is  the  prospect  of  change  ?  Is  there  any  hope 
that  the  national  sentiment  will  recover  its  accustomed  tone, 
and  restore  to  the  government  a  just  and  efficient  adminis 
tration  ? 

Sir,  if  there  be  something  of  doubt  on  this  point,  there  is  also 
something,  perhaps  much,  of  hope.  The  popularity  of  the  pres 
ent  chief  magistrate,  springing  from  causes  not  connected  with 
his  administration  of  the  government,  has  been  great.  Public 
gratitude  for  military  service  has  remained  fast  to  him,  in  defi 
ance  of  many  things  in  his  civil  administration  calculated  to 
weaken  its  hold.  At  length  there  are  indications,  not  to  be  mis 
taken,  of  new  sentiments  and  new  impressions.  At  length,  a 
conviction  of  danger  to  important  interests,  and  to  the  security 
of  the  government,  has  made  its  lodgement  in  the  public  mind. 
At  length,  public  sentiment  begins  to  have  its  free  course  and 
to  produce  its  just  effects.  I  fully  believe,  Sir,  that  a  great 
majority  of  the  nation  desire  a  change  in  the  administration ; 
and  that  it  will  be  difficult  for  party  organization  or  party  de 
nunciation  to  suppress  the  effective  utterance  of  that  general 
wish.  There  are  unhappy  differences,  it  is  true,  about  the  fit 
person  to  be  successor  to  the  present  incumbent  in  the  chief 
magistracy;  and  it  is  possible  that  this  disunion  may,  in  the 
end,  defeat  the  will  of  the  majority.  But  so  far  as  we  agree 
together,  let  us  act  together.  Wherever  our  sentiments  concur, 
let  our  hands  cooperate.  If  we  cannot  at  present  agree  who 
should  be  President,  we  are  at  least  agreed  who  ought  not  to 
be.  I  fully  believe,  Sir,  that  gratifying  intelligence  is  already 
on  the  wing.  While  we  are  yet  deliberating  in  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania  is  voting.  This  week,  she  elects  her  members 
to  the  next  Congress.  I  doubt  not  the  result  of  that  election 
will  show  an  important  change  in  public  sentiment  in  that 
State;  nor  can  I  doubt  that  the  great  States  adjoining  her, 
holding  similar  constitutional  principles  and  having  similar 
interests,  will  feel  the  impulse  of  the  same  causes  which  affect 
her.  The  people  of  the  "United  States,  by  a  countless  majority. 


AT  WORCESTER.  277 

are  attached  to  the  Constitution.  If  they  shall  be  convinced 
that  it  is  in  danger,  they  will  come  to  its  rescue,  and  will  save  it. 
It  cannot  be  destroyed,  even  now,  if  THEY  will  undertake  its 
guardianship  and  protection. 

But  suppose,  Sir,  there  was  less  hope  than  there  is,  would  that 
consideration  weaken  the  force  of  our  obligations  ?  Are  we  at 
a  post  which  we  are  at  liberty  to  desert  when  it  becomes  diffi 
cult  to  hold  it  ?  May  we  fly  at  the  approach  of  danger  ?  Does 
our  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  require  no  more  of  us  than  to 
enjoy  its  blessings,  to  bask  in  the  prosperity  which  it  has  shed 
around  us  and  our  fathers  ?  and  are  we  at  liberty  to  abandon  it 
in  the  hour  of  its  peril,  or  to  make  for  it  but  a  faint  and  heart 
less  struggle,  for  the  want  of  encouragement  and  the  want  of 
hope  ?  Sir,  if  no  State  corne  to  our  succor,  if  everywhere  else 
the  contest  should  be  given  up,  here  let  it  be  protracted  to  the 
last  moment.  Here,  where  the  first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was 
shed,  let  the  last  effort  be  made  for  that  which  is  the  greatest 
blessing  obtained  by  the  Revolution,  a  free  and  united  govern 
ment.  Sir,  in  our  endeavors  to  maintain  our  existing  forms  of 
government,  we  are  acting  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  the 
great  cause  of  constitutional  liberty  all  over  the  globe.  We  are 
trustees  holding  a  sacred  treasure,  in  which  all  the  lovers  of  free 
dom  have  a  stake.  Not  only  in  revolutionized  France,  where 
there  are  no  longer  subjects,  where  the  monarch  can  no  longer 
say,  I  am  the  state ;  not  only  in  reformed  England,  where  our 
principles,  our  institutions,  our  practice  of  free  government,  are 
now  daily  quoted  and  commended ;  but  in  the  depths  of  Ger 
many,  also,  and  among  the  desolated  fields  and  the  still  smok 
ing  ashes  of  Poland,  prayers  are  uttered  for  the  preservation  of 
our  union  and  happiness.  We  are  surrounded,  Sir,  by  a  cloud 
of  witnesses.  The  gaze  of  the  sons  of  liberty,  everywhere,  is 
upon  us,  anxiously,  intently,  upon  us.  They  may  see  us  fall  in 
the  struggle  for  our  Constitution  and  government,  but  Heaven 
forbid  that  they  should  see  us  recreant. 

At  least,  Sir,  let  the  star  of  Massachusetts  be  the  last  which 
shall  be  seen  to  fall  from  heaven,  and  to  plunge  into  the  utter 
darkness  of  disunion.  Let  her  shrink  back,  let  her  hold  others 
back  if  she  can,  at  any  rate,  let  her  keep  herself  back,  from  this 
gulf,  full  at  once  of  fire  and  of  blackness ;  yes,  Sir,  as  far  as 
human  foresight  can  scan,  or  human  imagination  fathom,  full 

VOL.  i.  24 


278  NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION. 

of  the  fire  and  the  blood  of  civil  war,  and  of  the  thick  darkness 
of  general  political  disgrace,  ignominy,  and  min.  Though  the 
worst  may  happen  that  can  happen,  and  though  she  may  not  be 
able  to  prevent  the  catastrophe,  yet  let  her  maintain  her  own 
integrity,  her  own  high  honor,  her  own  unwavering  fidelity,  so 
that  with  respect  and  decency,  though  with  a  broken  and  a 
bleeding  heart,  she  may  pay  the  last  tribute  to  a  glorious,  de 
parted,  free  Constitution. 


*  A  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  in  Honor  of  the  Centennial  Birthday 
of  Washington,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1832. 

*  Extract  of  a  letter  written  by  John  Adams  to  Nathan  Webb,  dated  at  Wor 
cester,  Massachusetts,  October  12,  1755. 

"  Soon  after  the  Reformation,  a  few  people  came  over  into  this  New  World,  for 
conscience'  sake.  Perhaps  this  apparently  trivial  incident  may  transfer  the  great 
seat  of  empire  into  America.  It  looks  likely  to  me  ;  for,  if  we  can  remove  the 
turbulent  Gallics,  our  people,  according  to  the  exactest  computations,  will,  in  an 
other  century,  become  more  numerous  than  England  itself.  Should  this  be  the 
case,  since  we  have,  I  may  say,  all  the  naval  stores  of  the  nation  in  our  hands,  it 
will  be  easy  to  obtain  a  mastery  of  the  seas  ;  and  then  the  united  force  of  all 
Europe  will  not  be  able  to  subdue  us.  The  only  way  to  keep  us  from  setting  up 
for  ourselves  is  to  disunite  us. 


RECEPTION  AT  BUFFALO. 


RECEPTION  AT  BUFFALO.* 


IN  the  summer  of  1833,  Mr.  Webster  made  a  visit  to  the  State  of  Ohio. 
On  his  way  thither,  while  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  he  was  invited  by  the 
citizens  of  that  place  to  attend  a  public  dinner,  which  his  engagements, 
and  the  necessity  of  an  early  departure,  compelled  him  to  decline.  He 
accepted,  however,  an  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  launching  of  a  steam 
boat,  to  which  the  proprietors  had  given  the  name  of  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 
and,  in  reply  to  an  address  from  one  of  them,  made  the  following 
remarks :  — 

I  AVAIL  myself  gladly  of  this  opportunity  ol  making  my  ac 
knowledgments  to  the  proprietors  of  this  vessel,  for  the  honor 
conferred  upon  me  by  allowing  her  to  bear  my  name.  Such  a 
token  of  regard,  had  it  proceeded  from  my  immediate  friends 
and  neighbors,  could  not  but  have  excited  feelings  of  gratitude. 
It  is  more  calculated  to  awaken  these  sentiments,  when  coming 
from  gentlemen  of  character  and  worth  with  whom  I  have  not 
had  the  pleasure  of  personal  acquaintance,  and  whose  motive,  I 
may  flatter  myself,  is  to  be  found  in  an  indulgent  opinion  to 
wards  well-intentioned  services  in  a  public  situation. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure,  also,  on  the  occasion  of  so  large 
an  assembly  of  the  people  of  Buffalo,  to  express  to  them  my 
thanks  for  the  kindness  and  hospitality  with  which  I  have  been 
received  in  this  young,  but  growing  and  interesting  city.  The 
launching  of  another  vessel  on  these  inland  seas  is  but  a  fresh 
occasion  of  congratulation  on  the  rapid  growth,  the  great  active 
prosperity,  and  the  animating  prospects  of  this  city.  Eight 
years  ago,  fellow-citizens,  I  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  a  short  visit 
to  this  place.  There  was  then  but  one  steamboat  on  Lake 

*  Remarks  made  to  the  Citizens  of  Buffalo,  June,  1833. 
24* 


f:  11  in 


I'M., 


Ill  III     ill 

!  Ill  III 


II  f^K     Wlli^eP 
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iat  is  to  .be 


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i  land 
taken 


:;r.:. 


1:H''i*l  tiho 
fc:r   '   .e  bitiilof 


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i  din 


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.  lion. 


remembered,  are  the  fruits  of  a  united  government,  and  one 
general,  common  commercial  system. 

It  is  not  only  the  trade  of  New  York,  of  Ohio,  of  New  Eng 
land,  of  Indiana,  or  of  Michigan,  but  it  is  a  part  of  the  great 
aggregate  of  the  trade  of  all  the  States,  in  which  you  so  largely 
and  so  successfully  partake.  Who  does  not  see  that  the  advan 
tages  here  enjoyed  spring  from  a  general  government  and  a  uni 
form  code  ?  Who  does  not  see,  that,  if  these  States  had  re 
mained  severed,  and  each  had  existed  with  a  system  of  imposts 
and  commercial  regulations  of  its  own,  all  excluding  and  repel 
ling,  rather  than  inviting,  the  intercourse  of  the  rest,  the  place 
could  hardly  have  hoped  to  be  more  than  a  respectable  frontier 
post?  Or  can  any  man  look  to  the  one  and  to  the  other  side 


RECEPTION  AT  BUFFALO.  283 

of  this  beautiful  lake  and  river,  and  not  see,  in  their  different 
conditions,  the  plain  and  manifest  results  of  different  political 
institutions  and  commercial  regulations  ? 

It  would  be  pleasant,  fellow-citizens,  to  dwell  on  these  top 
ics,  so  worthy  at  all  times  of  regard  and  reflection ;  and  espe 
cially  so  fit  to  engage  attention  at  the  present  moment.  But 
this  is  not  the  proper  moment  to  pursue  them ;  and,  tendering 
to  you  once  more  my  thanks  and  good  wishes,  I  take  my  leave 
of  you  by  expressing  my  hope  for  the  continued  success  of  that 
great  interest,  so  essential  to  your  happiness, —  THE  COMMERCE 
OF  THE  LAKES,  A  NEW-DISCOVERED  SOURCE  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPER 
ITY,  AND  A  NEW  BOND  OF  NATIONAL  UNION. 

An  address  was  also  made  to  Mr.  Webster  in  behalf  of  the  mechanics 
and  manufacturers  of  Buffalo,  to  which  he  returned  the  following  reply  :  — 

I  NEED  hardly  say,  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  that  it 
gives  me  much  satisfaction  to  receive  this  mark  of  approbation 
of  my  public  conduct  from  the  manufacturers  and  mechanics 
of  Buffalo.  Those  who  are  the  most  immediately  affected  by 
the  measures  of  the  government  are  naturally  the  earliest  to 
perceive  their  operation,  and  to  foresee  their  final  results.  Allow 
me  to  say,  Gentlemen,  that  the  confidence  expressed  by  you  in 
my  continuance  in  the  general  course  which  I  have  pursued 
must  rest,  and  may  rest  safely,  I  trust,  on  the  history  of  the  past. 
Desiring  always  to  avoid  extremes,  and  to  observe  a  prudent 
moderation  in  regard  to  the  protective  system,  I  yet  hold  stead 
iness  and  perseverance,  in  maintaining  what  has  been  estab 
lished,  to  be  essential  to  the  public  prosperity.  Nothing  can 
be  worse  than  that  laws  concerning  the  daily  labor  and  the  daily 
bread  of  whole  classes  of  the  people  should  be  subject  to  fre 
quent  and  violent  changes.  It  were  far  better  not  to  move  at 
all  than  to  move  forward  and  then  fall  back  again. 

My  sentiments,  Gentlemen,  on  the  tariff  question,  are  gener 
ally  known.  In  my  opinion,  a  just  and  a  leading  object  in  the 
whole  system  is  the  encouragement  and  protection  of  American 
manual  labor.  I  confess,  that  every  day's  experience  convinces 
me  more  and  more  of  the  high  propriety  of  regarding  this  ob 
ject.  Our  government  is  made  for  all,  not  for  a  few.  Its  object 
is  to  promote  the  greatest  good  of  the  whole ;  and  this  ought 
to  be  kept  constantly  in  view  in  its  administration.  The  far 
greater  number  of  those  who  maintain  the  government  belong 


284  RECEPTION  AT  BUFFALO. 

to  what  may  be  called  the  industrious  or  productive  classes  of 
the  community.  With  us  labor  is  not  depressed,  ignorant,  and 
unintelligent.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  active,  spirited,  enterprising, 
seeking  its  own  rewards,  and  laying  up  for  its  own  competence 
and  its  own  support.  The  motive  to  labor  is  the  great  stimulus 
to  our  whole  society ;  and  no  system  is  wise  or  just  which  does 
not  afford  this  stimulus,  as  far  as  it  may.  The  protection  of 
American  labor  against  the  injurious  competition  of  foreign 
labor,  so  far,  at  least,  as  respects  general  handicraft  productions, 
is  known  historically  to  have  been  one  end  designed  to  be  ob 
tained  by  establishing  the  Constitution ;  and  this  object,  and  the 
constitutional  power  to  accomplish  it,  ought  never  in  any  de 
gree  to  be  surrendered  or  compromised. 

Our  political  institutions,  Gentlemen,  place  power  in  the 
hands  of  all  the  people ;  and  to  make  the  exercise  of  this  power, 
in  such  hands,  salutary,  it  is  indispensable  that  all  the  people 
should  enjoy,  first,  the  means  of  education,  and,  second,  the 
reasonable  certainty  of  procuring  a  competent  livelihood  by 
industry  and  labor.  These  institutions  are  neither  designed  for, 
nor  suited  to,  a  nation  of  ignorant  paupers.  To  disseminate 
knowledge^  then,  universally,  and  to  secure  to  labor  and  indus 
try  their  just  rewards,  is  the  duty  both  of  the  general  and  the 
State  governments,  each  in  the  exercise  of  its  appropriate  pow 
ers.  To  be  free,  the  people  must  be  intelligently  free ;  to  be 
substantially  independent,  they  must  be  able  to  secure  them 
selves  against  want,  by  sobriety  and  industry ;  to  be  safe  depos 
itaries  of  political  power,  they  must  be  able  to  comprehend  and 
understand  the  general  interests  of  the  community,  and  must 
themselves  have  a  stake  in  the  welfare  of  that  community.  The 
interest  of  labor,  therefore,  has  an  importance,  in  our  system, 
beyond  what  belongs  to  it  as  a  mere  question  of  political  econo 
my.  It  is  connected  with  our  forms  of  government,  and  our 
whole  social  system.  The  activity  and  prosperity  which  at  pres 
ent  prevail  among  us,  as  every  one  must  notice,  are  produced  by 
the  excitement  of  compensating  prices  to  labor ;  and  it  is  fer 
vently  to  be  hoped  that  no  unpropitious  circumstances  and  no 
unwise  policy  may  counteract  this  efficient  cause  of  general 
competency  and  public  happiness. 

•  I  pray  you,  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  to  receive  personal 
ly  my  thanks  for  the  manner  in  which  you  have  communicated 
to  me  the  sentiments  of  the  meeting  which  you  represent. 


RECEPTION  AT   PITTSBTIRG. 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 


MR.  WEBSTER  arrived  at  Pittsburg  on  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  July 
accompanied  by  a  numerous  cavalcade  of  citizens.  He  was  immediately 
waited  on  by  a  committee,  with  the  following  letter :  — 

"  To  THE  HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  Pittstwrg,  July  4,  1833. 

"  SIR,  —  At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Pittsburg,  the  undersigned 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  convey  to  you  a  cordial  welcome,  and  an 
assurance  of  the  exalted  sense  which  is  entertained  of  your  character 
and  public  services. 

"  The  feeling  is  one  which  pervades  our  whole  community,  scorning 
any  narrower  discrimination  than  that  of  lovers  of  our  sacred  Union,  and 
admirers  of  the  highest  moral  and  intellectual  qualities,  steadily  and  tri 
umphantly  devoted  to  the  noblest  purposes. 

"  The  resolutions  under  which  the  committee  act  indicate  no  par 
ticular  form  of  tribute,  but  contain  only  an  earnest  injunction  to  seek  the 
best  mode  by  which  to  manifest  the  universal  recognition  of  your  claim 
to  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  every  American  citizen.  It  will  be 
deeply  mortifying  to  us,  if  our  execution  of  this  trust  shall  fail  adequately 
to  represent  the  enthusiastic  feeling  in  which  it  had  its  origin. 

"  The  committee  will  have  the  honor  of  waiting  on  you  in  person,  at 
such  an  hour  as  you  may  please  to  designate,  with  a  view  to  ascertain 
how  they  can  best  fulfil  the  purposes  of  their  appointment.  It  will  be 
very  gratifying  if  your  convenience  will  permit  you  to  partake  of  a  public 
dinner  at  any  period  during  your  stay. 

"  We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  the  highest  respect,  &c. 

JAMES  ROSS,  RICHARD  BIDDLE, 

BENJAMIN  BAKEWELL,  SAMUEL  P.  DARLINGTON, 

CHARLES  A  VERY,  MICHAEL  TIERNAN, 

WILLIAM  WADE.  SAMUEL  FAHNESTOCK, 

SAMUEL  PETTIGREW,  THOMAS  BAKEWELL, 

GEORGE  MILTENBERGER,  WALTER  H.  LOWRIE, 

ISAAC  LIGHTNER,  WILLIAM  W.  IRWLN, 

SYLVAN  US  LATHROP,  ROBERT  S.  CASSAT, 

JOHN  ARTHURS,  CORNELIUS  DARRAGH, 

ALEX.  BRACKENRTDGE,  BENJAMIN  DARLINGTON, 

WILLIAM  ROBINSON,  JUN.  NEVILLE  B.  CRAIG, 

GEORGE  A.  COOK,  WILSON  McCANDLES, 

W.  W.  FETTERMAN,  OWEN  ASHTON, 

SAMUEL  ROSEBURGH,  CHARLES  SHALER, 

WILLIAM  MACKEY,  THOMAS  SCOTT, 

JAMES  JOHNSTON,  CHARLES  H.  ISRAEL  " 


288  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Webster  returned  the  following  reply :  — 

"  Pittsburg,  July  5,  1833. 

"  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  hardly  know  how  to  express  my  thanks  for  the  hos 
pitable  and  cordial  welcome  with  which  the  citizens  of  Pittsburg  are 
disposed  to  receive  me  on  this  my  first  visit  to  their  city.  The  terms  in 
which  you  express  their  sentiments,  in  your  letter  of  yesterday,  far  tran 
scend  all  merits  of  mine,  and  can  have  their  origin  only  in  spontaneous 
kindness  and  good  feeling.  I  tender  to  you,  Gentlemen,  and  to  the  meeting 
which  you  represent,  my  warmest  acknowledgments.  I  rejoice  sincerely 
to  find  the  health  of  the  city  so  satisfactory ;  and  I  reciprocate  with  all 
the  people  of  Pittsburg  the  most  sincere  and  hearty  good  wishes  for  their 
prosperity  and  happiness.  Long  may  it  continue  what  it  now  is,  an 
abode  of  comfort  and  hospitality,  a  refuge  for  the  well-deserving  from  all 
nations,  a  model  of  industry,  and  an  honor  to  the  country. 

"  It  is  my  purpose,  Gentlemen,  to  stay  a  day  or  two  among  you,  to  see 
such  of  your  manufactories  and  public  institutions  as  it  may  be  in  my 
power  to  visit.  I  most  respectfully  pray  leave  to  decline  a  public  dinner, 
but  shall  have  great  pleasure  in  meeting  such  of  your  fellow-citizens  as 
may  desire  it,  in  the  most  friendly  and  unceremonious  manner. 
"  I  am,  Gentlemen,  with  very  true  regard,  yours, 

"  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 
"To  HON.  JAMES  Ross  and  others, 
Gentlemen  of  the  Committee." 


In  deference  to  Mr.  Webster's  wishes,  the  idea  of  a  formal  dinner  was 
abandoned  ;  but,  as  there  was  a  general  desire  for  some  collective  expres 
sion  of  public  esteem,  it  was  determined  to  invite  him  to  meet  the  citizens 
in  a  spacious  grove,  at  four  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  8th.  Refresh 
ments  of  a  plain  kind  were  spread  around,  under  the  charge  of  the  com 
mittee  ;  but  the  tables  could  serve  only  as  a  nucleus  to  the  multitude. 
His  Honor  the  Mayor  called  the  company  to  order,  and  addressed  them 
as  follows :  — 

"  I  have  to  ask,  Gentlemen,  your  attention  for  a  few  moments. 

"  We  are  met  here  to  mark  our  sense  of  the  extraordinary  merits  of  a 
distinguished  statesman  and  public  benefactor.  At  his  particular  request, 
every  thing  like  parade  or  ceremonial  has  been  waived ;  and,  in  conse 
quence,  he  has  been  the  better  enabled  to  receive,  and  to  reciprocate,  the 
hearty  and  spontaneous  expression  of  your  good-will.  I  am  now  desired 
to  attempt,  in  your  name,  to  give  utterance  to  the  universal  feeling 
around  me. 

"  Gentlemen,  we  are  this  day  citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  Union 
is  safe.  Not  a  star  has  fallen  from  that  proud  banner  around  which  our 
afTections  have  so  long  rallied.  And  when,  with  this  delighful  assurance, 
we  cast  our  eyes  back  upon  the  eventful  history  of  the  last  year,  —  when 
we  recall  the  gloomy  apprehensions,  and  perhaps  hopeless  despondency, 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  289 

which  came  over  us, —  who,  Gentlemen,  can  learn,  without  a  glow  of 
enthusiasm,  that  the  great  champion  of  the  Constitution,  that  DANIEL 
WEBSTER,  is  now  in  the  midst  of  us.  To  his  mighty  intellect,  the  nation, 
with  one  voice,  confided  its  cause,  —  of  life  or  death.  Shall  there  be 
withheld  from  the  triumphant  advocate  of  the  nation  a  nation's  gratitude  ? 
Ours,  Gentlemen,  is  a  government  not  of  force,  but  of  opinion.  The  rea 
son  of  the  people  must  be  satisfied  before  a  call  to  arms.  The  mass  of 
our  peaceful  and  conscientious  citizens  cannot,  and  ought  not,  except  in 
a  clear  case,  to  be  urged  to  abandon  the  implements  of  industry  for  the 
sword  and  the  bayonet.  This  consideration  it  is  that  imparts  to  intellec 
tual  preeminence  in  the  service  of  truth  its  incalculable  value.  And 
hence  the  preciousness  of  that  admirable  and  unanswerable  exposition, 
which  has  put  down,  once  and  for  ever,  the  artful  sophisms  of  nullification. 

44  If,  Gentlemen,  we  turn  to  other  portions  of  the  public  history  of  our 
distinguished  guest,  it  will  be  found  that  his  claims  to  grateful  acknowl 
edgment  are  not  less  imposing.  The  cause  of  domestic  industry,  of  inter 
nal  improvement,  of  education,  of  whatever,  in  short,  is  calculated  to 
render  us  a  prosperous,  united,  and  happy  people,  has  found  in  him  a 
watchful  and  efficient  advocate.  Nor  is  it  the  least  of  his  merits,  that  to 
our  gallant  Navy  Mr.  Webster  has  been  an  early,  far-sighted,  and  per 
severing  friend.  Our  interior  position  cannot  render  us  cold  and  unob 
servant  on  this  point,  whilst  the  victory  of  Perry  yet  supplies  to  us  a 
proud  and  inspiring  anniversary.  And  such  is  the  wonderful  chain  of 
mutual  dependence  which  binds  our  Union,  that,  in  the  remotest  corner 
of  the  West,  the  exchangeable  value  of  every  product  must  depend  on 
the  security  with  which  the  ocean  can  be  traversed. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  have  detained  you  too  long ;  yet  I  will  add  one  word. 
I  do  but  echo  the  language  of  the  throngs  that  have  crowded  round  Mr. 
Webster  in  declaring,  that  the  frank  and  manly  simplicity  of  his  charac 
ter  and  manners  has  created  a  feeling  of  personal  regard  which  no  mere 
intellectual  ascendency  could  have  secured.  We  approached  him  with 
admiration  for  the  achievements  of  his  public  career,  never  supposing  for 
a  moment  that  our  hearts  could  have  aught  to  do  in  the  matter ;  we  shall 
part  as  from  a  valued  friend,  the  recollection  of  whose  virtues  cannot 
pass  away." 

MR.  WEBSTER  then  addressed  the  assembly  as  follows  :-- 


VOL.  i.  25 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBUKG.* 


MR.  MAYOR  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  I  rise,  fellow-citizens,  with 
unaffected  sensibility,  to  give  you  my  thanks  foi  the  hospitable 
manner  in  which  you  have  been  land  enough  to  receive  me,  on 
this  my  first  visit  *to  Pittsburg,  and  to  make  all  due  acknowl 
edgments  to  your  worthy  Mayor,  for  the  sentiments  which  he 
has  now  seen  fit  to  express. 

Although,  Gentlemen,  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  be  personally 
acquainted  with  very  few  of  you,  I  feel,  at  this  moment,  that  we 
are  not  strangers.  We  are  fellow-countrymen,  fellow-citizens, 
bound  together  by  a  thousand  ties  of  interest,  of  sympathy,  of 
duty ;  united,  I  hope  I  may  add,  by  bonds  of  mutual  regard. 
We  are  bound  together,  for  good  or  for  evil,  in  our  great  politi 
cal  interests.  I  know  that  I  am  addressing  Americans,  every 
one  of  whom  has  a  true  American  heart  in  his  bosom ;  and  I 
feel  that  I  have  also  an  American  heart  in  my  bosom.  I  ad 
dress  you,  then,  Gentlemen,  with  the  same  fervent  good  wishes 
for  your  happiness,  the  same  brotherly  affection,  and  the  same 
feelings  of  regard  and  esteem,  as  if,  instead  of  being  upon  the 
borders  of  the  Ohio,  I  stood  by  the  Connecticut  or  the  Merri- 
mack.  As  citizens,  countrymen,  and  neighbors,  I  give  you  my 
hearty  good  wishes,  and  thank  you,  over  and  over  again,  for 
your  abundant  hospitality. 

Gentlemen,  the  Mayor  has  been  pleased  to  advert,  in  terms 
beyond  all  expectation  or  merit  of  my  own,  to  my  services  in 
defence  of  the  glorious  Constitution  under  which  we  live,  and 
which  makes  you  and  me  all  that  we  are,  and  all  that  we  desire 
to  be.  He  has  done  much  more  than  justice  to  my  efforts ;  but 

*  Address  delivered  to  the  Citizens  of  Pittsburg,  on  the  8th  of  July,  1833. 


292  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

he  has  not  overstated  the  importance  of  the  occasion  on  which 
those  efforts  were  made. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  but  a  few  short  months  since  dark  and  por 
tentous  clouds  did  hang  over  our  heavens,  and  did  shut  out,  as 
it  were,  the  sun  in  his  glory.  A  new  and  perilous  crisis  was 
upon  us.  Dangers,  novel  in  their  character,  and  fearful  in  their 
aspect,  menaced  both  the  peace  of  the  country  and  the  integrity 
of  the  Constitution.  For  forty  years  our  government  had  gone 
on,  I  need  hardly  say  how  prosperously  and  gloriously,  meeting, 
it  is  true,  with  occasional  dissatisfaction,  and,  in  one  or  two  in 
stances,  with  ill-concerted  resistance  to  law.  Through  all  these 
trials  it  had  successfully  passed.  But  now  a  time  had  come 
when  the  authority  of  law  was  opposed  by  authority  of  law, 
when  the  power  of  the  general  government  was  resisted  by 
the  arms  of  State  government,  and  when  organized  military 
force,  under  all  the  sanctions  of  State  conventions  and  State 
laws,  was  ready  to  resist  the  collection  of  the  public  revenues, 
and  hurl  defiance  at  the  statutes  of  Congress. 

Gentlemen,  this  was  an  alarming  moment.  In  common  with 
all  good  citizens,  I  felt  it  to  be  such.  A  general  anxiety  per 
vaded  the  breasts  of  all  who  were,  at  home,  partaking  in  the 
prosperity,  honor,  and  happiness  which  the  country  had  enjoyed. 
And  how  was  it  abroad  ?  Why,  Gentlemen,  every  intelligent 
friend  of  human  liberty,  throughout  the  world,  looked  with 
amazement  at  the  spectacle  which  we  exhibited.  In  a  day  of 
unparalleled  prosperity,  after  a  half-century's  most  happy  expe 
rience  of  the  blessings  of  our  Union ;  when  we  had  already  be 
come  the  wonder  of  all  the  liberal  part  of  the  world,  and  the 
envy  of  the  illiberal ;  when  the  Constitution  had  so  amply  falsi 
fied  the  predictions  of  its  enemies,  and  more  than  fulfilled  all  the 
hopes  of  its  friends ;  in  a  time  of  peace,  with  an  overflowing 
treasury;  when  both  the  population  and  the  improvement  of 
the  country  had  outrun  the  most  sanguine  anticipations;  —  it 
was  at  this  moment  that  we  showed  ourselves  to  the  whole  civ 
ilized  world  as  being  apparently  on  the  eve  of  disunion  and 
anarchy,  at  the  very  point  of  dissolving,  once  and  for  ever,  that 
Union  which  had  made  us  so  prosperous  and  so  great.  It  was 
at  this  moment  that  those  appeared  among  us  who  seemed 
ready  to  break  up  the  national  Constitution,  and  to  scatter  the 
twenty-four  States  into  twenty-four  unconnected  communities. 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  293 

Gentlemen,  the  President  of  the  United  States  was,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  at  this  eventful  crisis,  true  to  his  duty.  He  com 
prehended  and  understood  the  case,  and  met  it  as  it  was  proper 
to  meet  it.  While  I  am  as  willing  as  others  to  admit  that  the 
President  has,  on  other  occasions,  rendered  important  services  to 
the  country,  and  especially  on  that  occasion  which  has  given  him 
so  much  military  renown,  I  yet  think  the  ability  and  decision 
with  which  he  rejected  the  disorganizing  doctrines  of  nullifica 
tion  create  a  claim,  than  which  he  has  none  higher,  to  the  grati 
tude  of  the  country  and  the  respect  of  posterity.  The  appear 
ance  of  the  proclamation  of  the  10th  of  December  inspired  me,  I 
confess,  with  new  hopes  for  the  duration  of  the  republic.  I  re 
garded  it  as  just,  patriotic,  able,  and  imperiously  demanded  by 
the  condition  of  the  country.  I  would  not  be  understood  to 
speak  of  particular  clauses  and  phrases  in  the  proclamation ; 
but  I  regard  its  great  and  leading  doctrines  as  the  true  and 
only  true  doctrines  of  the  Constitution.  They  constitute  the 
sole  ground  on  which  dismemberment  can  be  resisted.  Noth 
ing  else,  in  my  opinion,  can  hold  us  together.  While  these 
opinions  are  maintained,  the  Union  will  last ;  when  they  shall 
be  generally  rejected  and  abandoned,  that  Union  will  be  at  the 
mercy  of  a  temporary  majority  in  any  one  of  the  States. 

I  speak,  Gentlemen,  on  this  subject,  without  reserve.  I  have 
not  intended  heretofore,  and  elsewhere,  and  do  not  now  intend 
here,  to  stint  my  commendation  of  the  conduct  of  the  President 
in  regard  to  the  proclamation  and  the  subsequent  measures.  1 
have  differed  with  the  President,  as  all  know,  who  know  any 
thing  of  so  humble  an  individual  as  myself,  on  many  questions 
of  great  general  interest  and  importance.  I  differ  with  him  in 
respect  to  the  constitutional  power  of  internal  improvements ;  I 
differ  with  him  in  respect  to  the  rechartering  of  the  Bank,  and  I 
dissent,  especially,  from  the  grounds  and  reasons  on  which  he 
refused  his  assent  to  the  bill  passed  by  Congress  for  that  pur 
pose.  I  differ  with  him,  also,  probably,  in  the  degree  of  protec 
tion  which  ought  to  be  afforded  to  our  agriculture  and  manufac 
tures,  and  in  the  manner  in  which  it  may  be  proper  to  dispose 
of  the  public  lands.  But  all  these  differences  afforded,  in  my 
judgment,  not  the  slightest  reason  for  opposing  him  in  a  meas 
ure  of  paramount  importance,  and  at  a  moment  of  great  public 
exigency.  I  sought  to  take  counsel  of  nothing  but  patriotism, 
25* 


294  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

to  feel  no  impulse  but  that  of  duty,  and  to  yield  not  a  lame 
and  hesitating,  but  a  vigorous  and  cordial,  support  to  measures 
which,  in  my  conscience,  I  believed  essential  to  the  preservation 
of  the  Constitution.  It  is  true,  doubtless,  that  if  myself  and  oth 
ers  had  surrendered  ourselves  to  a  spirit  of  opposition,  we  might 
have  embarrassed,  and  probably  defeated,  the  measures  of  the 
administration.  But  in  so  doing,  we  should,  in  my  opinion, 
have  been  false  to  our  own  characters,  false  to  our  duty,  and 
false  to  our  country.  It  gives  me  the  highest  satisfaction  to 
know,  that,  in  regard  to  this  subject,  the  general  voice  of  the 
country  does  not  disapprove  my  conduct. 

I  ought  to  add,  Gentlemen,  that,  in  whatever  I  may  have 
done  or  attempted  in  this  respect,  I  only  share  a  common  merit. 
A  vast  majority  of  both  houses  of  Congress  cordially  concurred 
in  the  measures.  Your  own  great  State  was  seen  in  her  just 
position  on  that  occasion,  and  your  own  immediate  representa 
tives  were  found  among  the  most  zealous  and  efficient  friends  of 
the  Union. 

Gentlemen,  I  hope  that  the  result  of  that  experiment  may 
prove  salutary  in  its  consequences  to  our  government,  and  to 
the  interests  of  the  community.  I  hope  that  the  signal  and 
decisive  manifestation  of  public  opinion,  which  has,  for  the  time 
at  least,  put  down  the  despotism  of  nullification,  may  produce 
permanent  good  effects.  I  know  full  well  that  popular  topics 
may  be  urged  against  the  proclamation.  I  know  it  may  be 
said,  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  the  last  session,  that,  if  such  laws 
are  to  be  maintained,  Congress  may  pass  what  laws  they  please, 
and  enforce  them.  But  may  it  not  be  said,  on  the  other  side, 
that,  if  a  State  may  nullify  one  law,  she  may  nullify  any  other 
law  also,  and,  therefore,  that  the  principle  strikes  at  the  whole 
power  of  Congress  ?  And  when  it  is  said,  that,  if  the  power 
of  State  interposition  be  denied,  Congress  may  pass  and  enforce 
what  laws  it  pleases,  is  it  meant  to  be  contended  or  insisted, 
that  the  Constitution  has  placed  Congress  under  the  guardian 
ship  and  control  of  the  State  legislatures  ?  Those  who  argue 
against  the  power  of  Congress,  from  the  possibility  of  its  abuse, 
entirely  forget  that,  if  the  power  of  State  interposition  be  al 
lowed,  that  power  may  be  abused  also.  What  is  more  mate 
rial,  they  forget  the  will  of  the  people,  as  they  have  plainly  ex 
pressed  it  in  the  Constitution.  They  forget  that  the  people  have 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  295 

chosen  to  give  Congress  a  power  of  legislation,  independent  of 
State  control.  They  forget  that  the  Confederation  has  ceased, 
and  that  a  Constitution,  a  government,  has  taken  its  place.  They 
forget  that  this  government  is  a  popular  government,  that  mem 
bers  of  Congress  are  but  agents  and  servants  of  the  people, 
chosen  for  short  periods,  periodically  removable  by  the  people, 
as  much  subservient,  as  much  dependent,  as  willingly  obedient, 
as  any  other  of  their  agents  and  servants.  This  dependence  on 
the  people  is  the  security  that  they  will  not  act  wrong.  This  is 
the  security  which  the  people  themselves  have  chosen  to  rely  on, 
in  addition  to  the  guards  contained  in  the  Constitution  itself. 

I  am  quite  aware,  Gentlemen,  that  it  is  easy  for  those  who 
oppose  measures  deemed  necessary  for  the  execution  of  the 
laws,  to  raise  the  cry  of  consolidation.  It  is  easy  to  make 
charges,  and  to  bring  general  accusations.  It  is  easy  to  call 
names.  For  one,  I  repel  all  such  imputations.  I  am  no  consol- 
idationist.  I  disclaim  the  character  altogether,  and,  instead  of 
repeating  this  general  and  vague  charge,  I  will  be  obliged  to 
any  one  to  show  how  the  proclamation,  or  the  late  law  of  Con 
gress,  or,  indeed,  any  measure  to  which  I  ever  gave  my  support, 
tends,  in  the  slightest  degree,  to  consolidation.  By  consolida 
tion  is  understood  a  grasping  at  power,  on  behalf  of  the  general 
government,  not  constitutionally  conferred.  But  the  proclama 
tion  asserted  no  new  power.  It  only  asserted  the  right  in  the 
government  to  carry  into  effect,  in  the  form  of  law,  power  which 
it  had  exercised  for  forty  years.  I  should  oppose  any  grasping 
at  new  powers  by  Congress,  as  zealously  as  the  most  zealous. 
I  wish  to  preserve  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  without  addition, 
and  without  diminution,  by  one  jot  or  tittle.  For  the  same  rea 
son  that  I  would  not  grasp  at  powers  not  given,  I  would  not 
surrender  nor  abandon  powers  which  are  given.  Those  who 
have  placed  me  in  a  public  station  placed  me  there,  not  to  alter 
the  Constitution,  but  to  administer  it.  The  power  of  change 
the  people  have  retained  to  themselves.  They  can  alter,  they 
can  modify,  they  can  change  the  Constitution  entirely,  if  they 
see  fit.  They  can  tread  it  under  foot,  and  make  another,  or 
make  *no  other ;  but  while  it  remains  unaltered  by  the  authority 
of  the  people,  it  is  our  power  of  attorney,  our  letter  of  credit, 
our  credentials;  and  we  are  to  follow  it,  and  obey  its  injunc 
tions,  and  maintain  its  just  powers,  to  the  best  of  our  abilities. 


296  RECEPTION  AT  P1TTSBURG. 

I  repeat,  that,  for  one,  I  seek  to  preserve  to  the  Constitution  those 
precise  powers  with  which  the  people  have  clothed  it.  While 
no  encroachment  is  to  be  made  on  the  reserved  rights  of  the 
people  or  of  the  States,  while  nothing  is  to  be  usurped,  it  is 
equally  clear  that  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  surrender,  either  in 
fact  or  form,  any  power  or  principle  which  the  Constitution  does 
actually  contain. 

And  what  is  the  ground  for  this  cry  of  consolidation  ?  I 
maintain  that  the  measures  recommended  by  the  President,  and 
adopted  by  Congress,  were  measures  of  self-defence.  Is  it  con 
solidation  to  execute  laws'?  Is  it  consolidation  to  resist  the 
force  that  is  threatening  to  upturn  our  government  ?  Is  it  con 
solidation  to  protect  officers,  in  the  discharge  of  their  duty,  from 
courts  and  juries  previously  sworn  to  decide  against  them  ? 

Gentlemen,  I  take  occasion  to  remark,  that,  after  much  reflec 
tion  upon  the  subject,  and  after  all  that  has  been  said  about  the 
encroachment  of  the  general  government  upon  the  rights  of  the 
States,  I  know  of  no  one  power,  exercised  by  the  general  gov 
ernment,  which  was  not,  when  that  instrument  was  adopted, 
admitted  by  the  immediate  friends  and  foes  of  the  Constitution 
to  have  been  conferred  upon  it  by  the  people.  I  know  of  no  one 
power,  now  claimed  or  exercised,  which  every  body  did  not 
agree,  in  1789,  was  conferred  on  the  general  government.  On 
the  contrary,  there  are  several  powers,  and  those,  too,  among  the 
most  important  for  the  interests  of  the  people,  which  were  then 
universally  allowed  to  be  conferred  on  Congress  by  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  which  are  now  ingeniously 
doubted,  or  clamorously  denied. 

Gentlemen,  upon  this  point  I  shall  detain  you  with  no  further 
remarks.  It  does,  however,  give  me  the  most  sincere  pleasure 
to  say,  that,  in  a  long  visit  through  the  State  west  of  you,  and 
the  great  State  north  of  you,  as  well  as  in  a  tour  of  some 
days'  duration  in  the  respectable  State  to  which  you  belong,  I 
find  but  one  sentiment  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  govern 
ment  upon  this  subject.  I  know  that  those  who  have  seen  fit 
to  intrust  to  me,  in  part,  their  interests  in  Congress,  approve  of 
the  measures  recommended  by  the  President.  We  see  that  he 
has  taken  occasion,  during  the  recess  of  Congress,  to  visit  that 
part  of  the  country ;  and  we  know  how  he  has  been  received. 
Nowhere  have  hands  been  extended  with  more  sincerity  of 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  297 

friendship ;  and  for  one,  Gentlemen,  I  take  occasion  to  say,  that, 
having  heard  of  his  return  to  the  seat  of  government  with  health 
rather  debilitated,  it  is  among  my  most  earnest  prayers  that 
Providence  may  spare  his  life,  and  that  he  may  go  through  his 
administration  and  come  out  of  it  with  as  much  success  and 
glory  as  any  of  his  predecessors. 

Your  worthy  chief  magistrate  has  been  kind  enough,  Gen 
tlemen,  to  express  sentiments  favorable  to  myself,  as  a  friend  of 
domestic  industry.  Domestic  industry !  How  much  of  national 
power  and  opulence,  how  much  of  individual  comfort  and  re 
spectability,  that  phrase  implies !  And  with  what  force  does  it 
strike  us,  as  we  stand  here,  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  rivers 
whose  united  currents  constitute  the  Ohio,  and  in  the  midst  of 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  and  distinguished  manufacturing 
cities  in  the  Union !  Many  thousand  miles  of  inland  navigation, 
running  through  a  new  and  rapidly-improving  country,  stretch 
away  below  us.  Internal  communications,  completed  or  in 
progress,  connect  the  city  with  the  Atlantic  and  the  Lakes.  A 
hundred  steam-engines  are  in  daily  operation,  and  nature  has 
supplied  the  fuel  which  feeds  their  incessant  flames  on  the 
spot  itself,  in  exhaustless  abundance.  Standing  here,  Gentle 
men,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  population,  and  with  such  a  scene 
around  us,  how  great  is  the  import  of  these  words,  "  domestic 
industry  " ! 

Next  to  the  preservation  of  the  government  itself,  there  can 
hardly  be  a  more  vital  question,  to  such  a  community  as  this, 
than  that  which  regards  their  own  employments,  and  the  preser 
vation  of  that  policy  which  the  government  has  adopted  and 
cherished  for  the  encouragement  and  protection  of  those  em 
ployments.  This  is  not,  in  a  society  like  this,  a  matter  which 
affects  the  interest  of  a  particular  class,  but  one  which  affects 
the  interest  of  all  classes.  It  runs  through  the  whole  chain  of 
human  occupation  and  employment,  and  touches  the  means  of 
living  and  the  comfort  of  all. 

Gentlemen,  those  of  you  who  may  have  turned  your  atten 
tion  to  the  subject  know,  that,  in  the  quarter  of  the  country 
with  which  I  am  more  immediately  connected,  the  people  were 
not  early  or  eager  to  urge  the  government  to  carry  the  protec 
tive  policy  to  the  height  which  it  has  reached.  Candor  obliges 
me  to  remind  you,  that,  when  the  act  of  1824  was  passed, 


298  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

neither  he  who  now  addresses  you,  nor  those  with  whom  he 
usually  acted  on  such  subjects,  were  ready  or  willing  to  take 
the  step  which  that  act  proposed.  They  doubted  its  expediency. 
It  passed,  however,  by  the  great  and  overwhelming  influence  of 
the  central  States,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  New 
England  acquiesced  in  it.  She  conformed  to  it,  as  the  settled 
policy  of  the  country,  and  gave  to  her  capital  and  her  labor  a 
corresponding  direction.  She  has  now  become  vitally  interested 
in  the  preservation  of  the  system.  Her  prosperity  is  identified, 
not  perhaps  with  any  particular  degree  of  protection,  but  with 
the  preservation  of  the  principle ;  and  she  is  not  likely  to  con 
sent  to  yield  the  principle,  under  any  circumstances  whatever. 
And  who  would  dare  to  yield  it?  Who,  standing  here,  and 
looking  round  on  this  community  and  its  interests,  would  be 
bold  enough  to  touch  the  spring  which  moves  so  much  industry 
and  produces  so  much  happiness?  Who  would  shut  up  the 
mouths  of  these  vast  coal-pits  ?  Who  would  stay  the  cargoes 
of  manufactured  goods,  now  floating  down  a  river,  one  of  the 
noblest  in  the  world,  and  stretching  through  territories  almost 
boundless  in  extent  and  unequalled  in  fertility  ?  Who  would 
quench  the  fires  of  so  many  steam-engines,  or  check  the  opera 
tions  of  so  much  well-employed  labor  ?  Gentlemen,  I  cannot 
conceive  how  any  subversion  of  that  policy  which  has  hitherto 
been  pursued  can  take  place,  without  great  public  embarrass 
ment  and  great  private  distress. 

I  have  said,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  protecting  American  man 
ual  labor ;  and  after  the  best  reflection  I  can  give  the  subject, 
and  from  the  lights  which  I  can  derive  from  the  experience  of  our 
selves  and  others,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  such  protec 
tion  is  just  and  proper ;  and  that  to  leave  American  labor  to  sus 
tain  a  competition  with  that  of  the  over-peopled  countries  of  Eu 
rope  would  lead  to  a  state  of  things  to  which  the  people  could 
never  submit.  This  is  the  great  reason  why  I  am  for  maintain 
ing  what  has  been  established.  I  see  at  home,  I  see  here,  I  see 
wherever  I  go,  that  the  stimulus  which  has  excited  the  existing 
activity,  and  is  producing  the  existing  prosperity,  of  the  country, 
is  nothing  else  than  the  stimulus  held  out  to  labor  by  compen 
sating  prices.  I  think  this  effect  is  visible  everywhere,  from  Pe- 
nobscot  to  New  Orleans,  and  manifest  in  the  condition  and  cir 
cumstances  of  the  great  body  of  the  people ;  for  nine  tenths  of 


RECEPTION   AT  PITTSBURG.  299 

the  whole,  people  belong  to  the  laborious,  industrious,  and  pro 
ductive  classes;  and  on  these  classes  the  stimulus  acts.  We 
perceive  that  the  price  of  labor  is  high,  and  we  know  that  the 
means  of  living  are  low ;  and  these  two  truths  speak  volumes  in 
favor  of  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country.  I  am  aware,  as 
has  been  said  already,  that  this  high  price  of  labor  results  partly 
from  the  favorable  condition  of  the  country.  Labor  was  high, 
comparatively  speaking,  before  the  act  of  1824  passed ;  but  that 
fact  affords  no  reason,  in  my  judgment,  for  endangering  its  secu 
rity  and  sacrificing  its  hopes,  by  overthrowing  what  has  since 
been  established  for  its  protection. 

Let  us  look,  Gentlemen,  to  the  condition  of  other  countries,  and 
inquire  a  little  into  the  causes,  which,  in  some  of  them,  produce 
poverty  and  distress,  the  lamentations  of  which  reach  our  own 
shores.  I  see  around  me  many  whom  I  know  to  be  emigrants 
from  other  countries.  Why  are  they  here  ?  Why  is  the  native 
of  Ireland  among  us  ?  Why  has  he  abandoned  scenes  as  dear 
to  him  as  these  hills  and  these  rivers  are  to  you  ?  Is  there  any 
other  cause  than  this,  that  the  burden  of  taxation  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  low  reward  of  labor  on  the  other,  left  him  without 
the  means  of  a  comfortable  subsistence,  or  the  power  of  provid 
ing  for  those  who  were  dependent  upon  him  ?  Was  it  not  on 
this  account  that  he  left  his  own  land,  and  sought  an  asylum  in 
a  country  of  free  laws,  of  comparative  exemption  from  taxation, 
of  boundless  extent,  and  in  which  the  means  of  living  are 
cheap,  and  the  prices  of  labor  just  and  adequate?  And  do  not 
these  remarks  apply,  with  more  or  less  accuracy,  to  every  other 
part  of  Europe?  Is  it  not  true,  that  sobriety,  and  industry,  and 
good  character,  can  do  more  for  a  man  here  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world  ?  And  is  not  this  truth,  which  is  so  obvious 
that  none  can  deny  it,  founded  in  this  plain  reason,  that  labor  in 
this  country  earns  a  better  reward  than  anywhere  else,  and  so 
gives  more  comfort,  more  individual  independence,  and  more 
elevation  of  character?  Whatever  else  may  benefit  particular 
portions  of  society,  whatever  else  may  assist  capital,  whatever 
else  may  favor  sharp-sighted  commercial  enterprise,  professional 
skill,  or  extraordinary  individual  sagacity  or  good  fortune,  be 
assured,  Gentlemen,  that  nothing  can  advance  the  mass  of  so 
ciety  in  prosperity  and  happiness,  nothing  can  uphold  the  sub 
stantial  interest  and  steadily  improve  the  general  condition 


300  RECEPTION  AT   PITTSBURG. 

character  of  the  whole,  but  this  one  thing,  compensating'  rewards 
to  labor.  The  fortunate  situation  of  our  country  tends  strongly, 
of  itself,  to  produce  this  result ;  the  government  has  adopted  the 
policy  of  cooperating  with  this  natural  tendency  of  things ;  it 
has  encouraged  and  fostered  labor  and  industry,  by  a  system  of 
discriminating  duties ;  and  the  result  of  these  combined  causes 
may  be  seen  in  the  present  circumstances  of  the  country. 

Gentlemen,  there  are  important  considerations  of  another 
kind  connected  with  this  subject.  Our  government  is  popular  ; 
popular  in  its  foundation,  and  popular  in  its  exercise.  The  ac 
tual  character  of  the  government  can  never  be  better  than  the 
general  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  the  community.  It 
would  be  the  wildest  of  human  imaginations,  to  expect  a  poor, 
vicious,  and  ignorant  people  to  maintain  a  good  popular  govern 
ment.  Education  and  knowledge,  which,  as  is  obvious,  can  be 
generally  attained  by  the  people  only  where  there  are  adequate  re 
wards  to  labor  and  industry,  and  some  share  in  the  public  interest, 
some  stake  in  the  community,  would  seem  indispensably  neces 
sary  in  those  who  have  the  power  of  appointing  all  public  agents, 
passing  all  laws,  and  even  of  making  and  unmaking  constitu 
tions  at  their  pleasure.  Hence  the  truth  of  the  trite  maxim,  that 
knowledge  and  virtue  are  the  only  foundation  of  republics.  But 
it  is  to  be  added,  and  to  be  always  remembered,  that  there  never 
was,  and  never  can  be,  an  intelligent  and  virtuous  people  who 
at  the  same  time  are  a  poor  and  idle  people,  badly  employed 
and  badly  paid.  Who  would  be  safe  in  any  community,  where 
political  power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  many  and  property  in  the 
hands  of  the  few?  Indeed,  such  an  unnatural  state  of  things 
could  nowhere  long  exist. 

It  certainly  appears  to  me,  Gentlemen,  to  be  quite  evident  at 
this  time,  and  in  the  present  condition  of  the  world,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  protect  the  industry  of  this  country  against  the 
pauper  labor  of  England  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  An  Amer 
ican  citizen,  who  has  children  to  maintain  and  children  to  edu 
cate,  has  an  unequal  chance  against  the  pauper  of  England, 
whose  children  are  not  to  be  educated,  and  are  probably  already 
on  the  parish,  and  who  himself  is  half  fed  and  clothed  by  his 
own  labor,  and  half  from  the  poor-rates,  and  very  badly  fed  and 
clothed  after  all.  As  I  have  already  said,  the  condition  of  our 
country  of  itself,  without  the  aid  of  government,  does  much 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  301 

to  favor  American  manual  labor;  and  it  is  a  question  of  pol 
icy  and  justice,  at  all  times,  what  and  how  much  govern 
ment  shall  do  in  aid  of  natural  advantages.  In  regard  to 
some  branches  of  industry,  the  natural  advantages  are  less 
considerable  than  in  regard  to  others ;  and  those,  therefore, 
more  imperiously  demand  the  regard  of  government.  Such 
are  the  occupations,  generally  speaking,  of  the  numerous  classes 
of  citizens  in  cities  and  large  towns ;  the  workers  in  leather, 
brass,  tin,  iron,  &c. ;  and  such,  too,  under  most  circumstances, 
are  the  employments  connected  with  ship-building. 

Our  own  experience  has  been  a  powerful,  and  ought  to  be  a 
convincing  and  long-remembered,  preacher  on  this  point.  From 
the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  there  came  on  a  period 
of  depression  and  distress,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  such  as  the 
people  had  hardly  felt  during  the  sharpest  crisis  of  the  war  itself. 
Ship-owners,  .ship-builders,  mechanics,  artisans,  all  were  desti 
tute  of  employment,  and  some  of  them  destitute  of  bread.  Brit 
ish  ships  came  freely,  and  British  goods  came  plentifully;  while 
to  American  ships  and  American  products  there  was  neither 
protection  on  the  one  side,  nor  the  equivalent  of  reciprocal  free 
trade  on  the  other.  The  cheaper  labor  of  England  supplied  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Atlantic  shores  with  every  thing.  Ready- 
made  clothes,  among  the  rest,  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to 
the  soles  of  the  feet,  were  for  sale  in  every  city.  All  these  things 
came  free  from  any  general  system  of  imposts.  Some  of  the 
States  attempted  to  establish  their  own  partial  systems,  but  they 
failed.  Voluntary  association  was  resorted  to,  but  that  failed 
also.  A  memorable  instance  of  this  mode  of  attempting  protec 
tion  occurred  in  Boston.  The  ship-owners,  seeing  that  British 
vessels  came  and  went  freely,  while  their  own  ships  were  rotting 
at  the  wharves,  raised  a  committee  to  address  the  people,  rec 
ommending  to  them,  in  the  strongest  manner,  not  to  buy  or 
use  any  articles  imported  in  British  ships.  The  chairman  of 
this  committee  was  no  less  distinguished  a  character  than  the 
immortal  John  Hancock.  The  committee  performed  its  duty 
powerfully  and  eloquently.  It  set  forth  strong  and  persuasive 
reasons  why  the  people  should  not  buy  or  use  British  goods  im 
ported  in  British  ships.  The  ship-owners  and  merchants  having 
thus  proceeded,  the  mechanics  of  Boston  took  up  the  subject 
also.  They  answered  the  merchants'  committee.  They  agreed 

VOL.  i.  26 


302  RECEPTION   AT  PITTSBURG. 

with  them  cordially,  that  British  goods,  imported  in  British  ves 
sels,  ought  not  to  be  bought  or  consumed;  but  then  they  took 
the  liberty  of  going  a  step  farther,  and  of  insisting  that  such 
goods  ought  not  to  be  bought  or  consumed  at  all.  (Great  ap 
plause.)  "  For,"  said  they,  "  Mr.  Hancock,  what  difference  does 
it  make  to  us,  whether  hats,  shoes,  boots,  shirts,  handkerchiefs, 
tin-ware,  brass-ware,  cutlery,  and  every  other  article,  come  in 
British  ships  or  come  in  your  ships;  since,  in  whatever  ships 
they  come,  they  take  away  our  means  of  living  ?  " 

Gentlemen,  it  is  an  historical  truth,  manifested  in  a  thousand 
ways  by  the  public  proceedings  and  public  meetings  of  the 
times,  that  the  necessity  of  a  general  and  uniform  impost  sys 
tem,  which,  while  it  should  provide  revenue  to  pay  the  public 
debt,  and  foster  the  commerce  of  the  country,  should  also  en 
courage  and  sustain  domestic  manufactures,  was  the  leading 
cause  in  producing  the  present  national  Constitution.  No  class 
of  persons  was  more  zealous  for  the  new  Constitution,  than  the 
handicraftsmen,  artisans,  and  manufacturers.  There  were  then, 
it  is  true,  no  large  manufacturing  establishments.  There  were 
no  manufactories  in  the  interior,  for  there  were  no  inhabitants. 
Here  was  Fort  Pitt,  —  it  had  a  place  on  the  map,  —  but  here 
were  no  people,  or  only  a  very  few.  But  in  the  cities  and  towns 
on  the  Atlantic,  the  full  importance,  indeed  the  absolute  neces 
sity,  of  a  new  form  of  government  and  a  general  system  of  im 
posts  was  deeply  felt. 

It  so  happened,  Gentlemen,  that  at  that  time  much  was 
thought  to  depend  on  Massachusetts ;  several  States  had  already 
agreed  to  the  Constitution ;  if  her  convention  adopted  it,  it  was 
likely  to  go  into  operation.  This  gave  to  the  proceedings  of 
that  convention  an  intense  interest,  and  the  country  looked  with 
trembling  anxiety  for  the  result,  That  result  was  for  a  long 
time  doubtful.  The  convention  was  known  to  be  almost  equally 
divided ;  and  down  to  the  very  day  and  hour  of  the  final  vote, 
no  one  could  predict,  with  any  certainty,  which  side  would  pre 
ponderate.  It  was  under  these  circumstances,  and  at  this  crisis, 
that  the  tradesmen  of  the  town  of  Boston,  in  January,  1788 
assembled  at  the  Green  Dragon  tavern,  the  place  where  the 
Whigs  of  the  Revolution,  in  its  early  stages,  had  been  accus 
tomed  to  assemble.  They  resolved,  that,  in  their  opinion,  if  the 
Constitution  should  be  adopted,  "trade,  and  navigation  would 


RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG.  303 

revive  and  increase,  and  employ  and  subsistence  be  afforded  to 
many  of  their  townsmen,  then  suffering  for  the  want  of  the  ne 
cessaries  of  life " ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  should  it  be 
rejected,  "  the  small  remains  of  commerce  yet  left  would  be  an 
nihilated  ;  the  various  trades  and  handicrafts  dependent  thereon 
decay  ;  the  poor  be  increased,  and  many  worthy  and  skilful 
mechanics  compelled  to  seek  employ  and  subsistence  in  strange 
lands."  These  resolutions  were  carried  to  the  Boston  delegates 
in  the  convention,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Samuel  Adams. 
That  great  and  distinguished  friend  of  American  liberty,  it  was 
feared,  might  have  doubts  about  the  new  Constitution.  Natu 
rally  cautious  and  sagacious,  it  was  apprehended  he  might  fear 
the  practicability,  or  the  safety,  of  a  general  government.  He 
received  the  resolutions  from  the  hands  of  Paul  Revere,  a  brass- 
founder  by  occupation,  a  man  of  sense  and  character,  and 
of  high  public  spirit,  whom  the  mechanics  of  Boston  ought 
never  to  forget.  "  How  many  mechanics,"  said  Mr.  Adams, 
"  were  at  the  Green  Dragon  when  these  resolutions  were  pass 
ed  ? "  "  More,  Sir,"  was  the  reply,  "  than  the  Green  Dragon 
could  hold."  "  And  where  were  the  rest,  Mr.  Revere ? "  "In 
the  streets,  Sir."  "  And  how  many  were  in  the  streets  ?  "  "  More, 
Sir,  than  there  are  stars  in  the  sky."  This  is  an  instance  only, 
among  many,  to  prove,  what  is  indisputably  true,  that  the 
tradesmen  and  mechanics  of  the  country  did  look  to  the  new 
Constitution  for  encouragement  and  protection  in  their  respec 
tive  occupations.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  they  will  abandon  the  principle,  in  its  application 
to  their  own  employments,  any  more  than  in  its  application  to 
the  commercial  and  shipping  interests.  They  believe  the  power 
is  in  the  Constitution ;  and  doubtless  they  mean,  so  far  as  de 
pends  on  them,  to  keep  it  there.  Desirous  of  no  extravagant 
measure  of  protection,  desirous  of  oppressing  or  burdening 
nobody,  seeking  nothing  as  a  substitute  for  honest  industry  and 
hard  work,  as  a  part  of  the  American  family,  having  the  same 
interests  as  other  parts,  they  will  continue  their  attachment  to 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  to  all  the  great  and  leading 
interests  of  the  country. 

Gentlemen,  your  worthy  Mayor  has  alluded  to  the  subject  of 
internal  improvements.  Having  no  doubt  of  the  power  of  the 
general  government  over  various  objects  comprehended  under 


304  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

that  name,  I  confess  I  have  felt  great  pleasure  in  forwarding  them, 
to  the  extent  of  my  ability,  by  means  of  reasonable  aid  from  the 
government.  It  has  seemed  strange  to  me,  that,  in  the  prog 
ress  of  human  knowledge  and  human  virtue  (for  I  have  no 
doubt  that  both  are  making  progress),  the  efforts  of  government 
should  so  long  have  been  principally  confined  to  external  affairs 
and  to  the  enactment  of  the  general  laws,  without  considering 
how  much  may  be  done  by  government,  which  cannot  be  done 
without  it,  for  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  people. 
There  are  many  objects,  of  great  value  to  man,  which  cannot 
be  attained  by  unconnected  individuals,  but  must  be  attain 
ed,  if  at  all,  by  association.  For  many  of  them  government 
seems  the  most  natural  and  the  most  efficient  association.  Vol 
untary  association  has  done  much,  but  it  cannot  do  all.  To 
the  great  honor  and  advantage  of  your  own  State,  she  has  been 
forward  in  applying  the  agency  of  government  to  great  objects 
of  internal  utility.  But  even  States  cannot  do  every  thing. 
There  are  some  things  which  belong  to  all  the  States ;  and,  if 
done  at  all,  must  be  done  by  all  the  States.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  late  war,  it  appeared  to  me  that  the  time  had  come  for 
the  government  to  turn  its  attention  inward ;  to  survey  the  con 
dition  of  the  country,  and  particularly  the  vast  Western  country ; 
to  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  whole :  and  to  adopt  a 
liberal  system  of  internal  improvements.  There  are  objects  not 
naturally  within  the  sphere  of  any  one  State,  which  yet  seemed 
of  great  importance,  as  calculated  to  unite  the  different  parts  of 
the  country,  to  open  a  better  and  shorter  way  between  the  pro 
ducer  and  consumer,  to  promise  the  highest  advantage  to  gov 
ernment  itself,  in  any  exigency.  It  is  true,  Gentlemen,  that  the 
local  theatre  for  such  improvement  is  not  mainly  in  the  East. 
The  East  is  old,  pretty  fully  peopled,  and  small.  The  West  is 
new,  vast,  and  thinly  peopled.  Our  rivers  can  be  measured; 
yours  cannot.  We  are  bounded ;  you  are  boundless.  The  West 
was,  therefore,  most  deeply  interested  in  this  system,  though 
certainly  not  alone  interested,  even  in  such  works  as  had  a 
Western  locality.  To  clear  her  rivers  wTas  to  open  them  for  the 
commerce  of  the  whole  country ;  to  construct  harbors,  and  clear 
entrances  to  existing  harbors,  whether  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  o; 
on  the  Lakes,  was  for  the  advantage  of  that  whole  commerce 
And  if  this  were  not  so,  he  is  but  a  poor  public  man  whose  pa 


RECEPTION   AT  PITTSBURG.  305 

triotism  is  governed  by  the  cardinal  points ;  who  is  for  or  against 
a  proposed  measure,  according  to  its  indication  by  compass,  or 
as  it  may  happen  to  tend  farther  from,  or  come  nearer  to,  his 
own  immediate  connections.  And  look  at  the  West ;  look  at 
these  rivers ;  look  at  the  Lakes ;  look  especially  at  Lake  Erie, 
and  see  what  a  moderate  expenditure  has  done  for  the  safety  of 
human  life,  and  the  preservation  of  property,  in  the  navigation 
of  that  lake ;  and  done,  let  me  add,  In  the  face  of  a  fixed  and 
ardent  opposition. 

1  rejoice,  sincerely,  Gentlemen,  in  the  general  progress  of  in 
ternal  improvement,  and  in  the  completion  of  so  many  objects 
near  you,  and  connected  with  your  prosperity.  Your  own  canal 
and  railroad  unite  you  with  the  Atlantic.  Near  you  is  the  Ohio 
Canal,  which  does  so  much  credit  to  a  younger  State,  and  with 
which  your  city  will  doubtless  one  day  have  a  direct  connection. 
On  the  south  and  east  approaches  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail 
road,  a  great  and  spirited  enterprise,  which  I  always  thought 
entitled  to  the  aid  of  government,  and  a  branch  of  which,  it  may 
be  hoped,  will  yet  reach  the  head  of  the  Ohio. 

I  will  only  add,  Gentlemen,  that  for  what  I  have  done  in  the 
cause  of  internal  improvement  I  claim  no  particular  merit,  hav 
ing  only  acted  with  others,  and  discharged,  conscientiously  and 
fairly,  what  I  regarded  as  my  duty  to  the  whole  country. 

Gentlemen,  the  Mayor  has  spoken  of  the  importance  and 
necessity  of  education.  And  can  any  one  doubt,  that  to  man, 
as  a  social  and  an  immortal  being,  as  interested  in  the  world 
that  is,  and  infinitely  more  concerned  for  that  which  is  to  be, 
education,  that  is  to  say,  the  culture  of  the  mind  and  the  heart, 
is  an  object  of  infinite  importance?  So  far  as  we  can  trace 
the  designs  of  Providence,  the  formation  of  the  mind  and  char 
acter,  by  instruction  in  knowledge,  and  instruction  in  righteous 
ness,  is  a  main  end  of  human  being.  Among  the  new  impulses 
which  society  has  received,  none  is  more  gratifying  than  the 
awakened  attention  to  public  education.  That  object  begins  to 
exhibit  itself  to  the  minds  of  men  in  its  just  magnitude,  and  to 
possess  its  due  share  of  regard.  It  is  but  in  a  limited  degree, 
and  indirectly  only,  that  the  powers  of  the  general  government 
have  been  exercised  in  the  promotion  of  this  object.  So  far  as 
these  powers  extend,  I  have  concurred  in  their  exercise  with 
great  pleasure.  The  Western  States,  from  the  recency  of  their 
26* 


306  RECEPTION  AT  PITTSBURG. 

settlement,  from  the  great  proportion  of  their  population  which 
are  children,  and  from  other  circumstances  which  must,  in  all 
new  countries,  more  or  less  curtail  individual  means,  have  ap 
peared  to  me  to  have  peculiar  claims  to  regard ;  and  in  all  cases 
where  I  have  thought  the  power  clear,  1  have  most  heartily  con 
curred  in  measures  designed  for  their  benefit,  in  this  respect. 
And  amidst  all  our  efforts  for  education,  literary,  moral,  or  relig 
ious,  be  it  always  remembered  that  we  leave  opinion  and  con 
science  free.  Heaven  grant  that  it  may  be  the  glory  of  the 
United  States  to  have  established  two  great  truths,  of  the  high 
est  importance  to  the  whole  human  race ;  first,  that  an  enlight 
ened  community  is  capable  of  self-government;  and,  second, 
that  the  toleration  of  all  sects  does  not  necessarily  produce  indif 
ference  to  religion. 

But  I  have  already  detained  you  too  long.  My  friends,  fellow- 
citizens,  and  countrymen,  I  take  a  respectful  leave  of  you.  The 
time  I  have  passed  on  this  side  the  Alleghanies  has  been  a  suc 
cession  of  happy  days.  I  have  seen  much  to  instruct  and  much 
to  delight  me.  I  return  you,  again  and  again,  my  unfeigned 
thanks  for  the  frankness  and  hospitality  with  which  you  have 
made  me  welcome ;  and  wherever  I  may  go,  or  wherever  I  may 
be,  I  pray  you  to  believe  I  shall  not  lose  the  recollection  of  your 
kindness. 


RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR. 


RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR. 


DURING  a  visit  to  Maine,  in  the  summer  of  1835,  on  business  connected 
with  his  profession,  Mr.  Webster  was  at  Bangor,  where  he  partook  of  a  col 
lation  with  many  of  the  citizens  of  that  place.  There  were  so  many  more 
people,  however,  desirous  to  see  and  hear  him  than  could  be  accommodat 
ed  in  the  hall  of  the  hotel,  that,  after  the  cloth  was  removed,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  proceed  to  the  balcony,  where,  after  thanking  the  company  for 
their  hospitality,  and  their  manifestation  of  regard,  he  addressed  the  assem 
bly  as  follows  :  — 

HAVING  occasion  to  come  into  the  State  on  professional  busi 
ness,  I  have  gladly  availed  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  visit  this 
city,  the  growing  magnitude  and  importance  of  which  have  re 
cently  attracted  such  general  notice.  I  am  happy  to  say,  that 
I  see  around  me  ample  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  the  favorable 
representations  which  have  gone  abroad.  Your  city,  Gentlemen, 
has  certainly  experienced  an  extraordinary  growth ;  and  it  is  a 
growth,  I  think,  which  there  is  reason  to  hope  is  not  unnatural, 
or  greatly  disproportionate  to  the  eminent  advantages  of  the 
place.  It  so  happened,  that,  at  an  early  period  of  my  life,  I 
came  to  this  spot,  attracted  by  that  favorable  position,  which 
the  slightest  glance  on  the  map  must  satisfy  every  one  that  it 
occupies.  It  is  near  the  head  of  tide-water,  on  a  river  which 
brings  to  it  from  the  sea  a  volume  of  water  equal  to  the  de 
mands  of  the  largest  vessels  of  war,  and  whose  branches,  unit 
ing  here,  from  great  distances  above,  traverse  in  their  course 
extensive  tracts  now  covered  with  valuable  productions  of  the 
forest,  and  capable,  most  of  them,  of  profitable  agricultural  cul 
tivation.  But  at  the  period  I  speak  of,  the  time  had  not  come 

*  Remarks  made  to  the  Citizens  of  Bangor,  Maine,  on  the  25th  of  August,  1835. 


310  RECEPTION  AT    BANGOR. 

for  the  proper  development  and  display  of  these  advantages. 
Neither  the  place  itself,  nor  the  country,  was  then  ready.  A 
long  course  of  commercial  restrictions  and  embargo,  and  a  for 
eign  war,  were  yet  to  be  gone  through,  before  the  local  advan 
tages  of  such  a  spot  could  be  exhibited  or  enjoyed,  or  the  coun 
try  would  be  in  a  condition  to  create  an  active  demand  for  its 
main  products. 

I  believe  some  twelve  or  twenty  houses  were  all  that  Bangor 
could  enumerate,  when  I  was  in  it  before ;  and  I  remember  to 
have  crossed  the  stream  which  now  divides  your  fair  city  on 
some  floating  logs,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  a  former  friend  and 
neighbor,  who  had  just  then  settled  here ;  a  gentleman  always 
most  respectable,  and  now  venerable  for  his  age  and  his  charac 
ter,  whom  I  have  great  pleasure  in  seeing  among  you  to-day,  in 
the  enjoyment  of  health  and  happiness. 

It  is  quite  obvious,  Gentlemen,  that  while  the  local  advan 
tages  of  a  noble  river,  and  of  a  large  surrounding  country,  may 
be  justly  considered  as  the  original  spring  of  the  present  prosper 
ity  of  the  city,  the  current  of  this  prosperity  has,  nevertheless, 
been  put  in  motion,  enlarged,  and  impelled,  by  the  general 
progress  of  improvement,  and  growth  of  wealth  throughout  the 
whole  country. 

At  the  period  of  my  former  visit,  there  was,  of  course,  neither 
railroad,  nor  steamboat,  nor  canal,  to  favor  communication ;  nor 
do  I  recollect  that  any  public  or  stage  coach  came  within  fifty 
miles  of  the  town. 

Internal  improvement  (as  it  is  comprehensively  called  in  this 
country)  has  been  the  great  agent  of  this  favorable  change ;  and 
so  blended  are  our  interests,  that  the  general  activity  which  ex 
ists  elsewhere,  supported  and  stimulated  by  internal  improve 
ment,  pervades  and  benefits  even  those  portions  of  the  country 
which  are  locally  remote  from  the  immediate  scene  of  the  main 
operations  of  this  improvement.  Whatever  promotes  commu 
nication,  whatsoever  extends  general  business,  whatsoever  en 
courages  enterprise,  or  whatsoever  advances  the  general  wealth 
and  prosperity  of  other  States,  must  have  a  plain,  direct,  and 
powerful  bearing  on  your  own  prosperity.  In  truth,  there  is  no 
town  in  the  Union,  whose  hopes  can  be  more  directly  staked  on 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  country,  than  this  rising  city.  If 
any  thing  should  interrupt  the  general  operations  of  business, 


RECEPTION  AT   BANGOR.  311 

if  commercial  embarrassment,  foreign  war,  pecuniary  derange 
ment,  domestic  dissension,  or  any  other  causes,  were  to  arrest 
the  general  progress  of  the  public  welfare,  all  must  see  with 
what  a  blasting  and  withering  effect  such  a  course  must  operate 
on  Bangor. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  often  taken  occasion  to  say,  what  circum 
stances  may  render  it  proper  now  to  repeat,  that,  at  the  close  of 
the  last  war,  a  new  era,  in  my  judgment,  had  opened  in  the 
United  States.  A  new  career  then  lay  before  us.  At  peace 
ourselves  with  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  those  nations,  too,  at 
peace  with  one  another,  and  the  leading  civilized  states  of  the 
world  no  longer  allowing  that  carrying  trade  which  had  been 
the  rich  harvest  of  our  neutrality  in  the  midst  of  former  wars, 
but  all  now  coming  forward  to  exercise  their  own  rights,  in  shar 
ing  the  commerce  and  navigation  of  the  world,  it  seemed  to  me 
to  be  very  plain,  that,  while  our  commerce  was  still  to  be  fos 
tered  with  the  most  zealous  care,  yet  quite  a  new  view  of  things 
was  presented  to  us  in  regard  to  our  internal  pursuits  and  con 
cerns.  The  works  of  peace,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  had  become 
our  duties.  A  hostile  exterior,  a  front  of  brass,  and  an  arm  of 
iron,  all  necessary  in  the  just  defence  of  the  country  against  for 
eign  aggression,  naturally  gave  place,  in  a  change  of  circum 
stances,  to  the  attitude,  the  objects,  and  the  pursuits  of  peace. 
Our  true  interest,  as  I  thought,  was  to  explore  our  own  resour 
ces,  to  call  forth  and  encourage  labor  and  enterprise  upon  inter 
nal  objects,  to  multiply  the  sources  of  employment  and  comfort 
at  home,  and  to  unite  the  country  by  ties  of  intercourse,  com 
merce,  benefits,  and  prosperity,  in  all  parts,  as  well  as  by  the  ties 
of  political  association.  And  it  appeared  to  me  that  government 
itself  clearly  possessed  the  power,  and  was  as  clearly  charged 
with  the  duty  of  helping  on,  in  various  ways,  this  great  business 
of  internal  improvement.  I  have,  therefore,  steadily  supported 
all  measures  directed  to  that  end,  which  appeared  to  me  to  be 
within  the  just  power  of  the  government,  and  to  be  practicable 
within  the  limits  of  reasonable  expenditure.  And  if  any  one 
would  judge  how  far  the  fostering  of  this  spirit  has  been  benefit 
cial  to  the  country,  let  him  compare  its  state  at  this  moment 
with  its  condition  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war;  and 
let  him  then  say  how  much  of  all  that  has  been  added  to  na 
tional  wealth  and  national  strength,  and  to  individual  pros- 


312  RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR. 

perity  and  happiness,  has  been  the  fair  result  of  internal  im 
provement. 

Gentlemen,  it  has  been  your  pleasure  to  give  utterance  to 
sentiments  expressing  approbation  of  my  humble  efforts,  on 
several  occasions,  in  defence  and  maintenance  of  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  country.  I  have  nothing  to  say  of  those  efforts,  ex 
cept  that  they  have  been  honestly  intended.  The  country  sees 
no  reason,  I  trust,  to  suppose  that  on  those  occasions  I  have 
taken  counsel  of  any  thing  but  a  deep  sense  of  duty.  I  have, 
on  some  occasions,  felt  myself  called  on  to  maintain  my  opin 
ions,  in  opposition  to  power,  to  place,  to  official  influence,  and 
to  overwhelming  personal  popularity.  I  have  thought  it  my  im 
perative  duty  to  put  forth  my  most  earnest  efforts  to  maintain 
what  I  considered  to  be  the  just  powers  of  the  government, 
when  it  appeared  to  me  that  those  to  whom  its  administration 
was  intrusted  were  countenancing  doctrines  inevitably  tending 
to  its  destruction.  And  I  have,  with  far  more  pleasure,  on  other 
occasions,  supported  the  constituted  authorities,  when  I  have 
deemed  their  measures  to  be  called  for  by  a  regard  to  its  preser 
vation. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Gentlemen,  has  ap 
peared  to  me  to  have  been  formed  and  adopted  for  two  grand 
objects.  The  first  is  the  Union  of  the  States.  It  is  the  bond 
of  that  union,  and  it  states  and  defines  its  terms.  Who  can 
speak  in  terms  warm  enough  and  high  enough  of  its  importance 
in  this  respect,  or  the  admirable  wisdom  with  which  it  is  formed  ? 
Or  who,  when  he  shall  have  stated  the  benefits  and  blessings 
which  it  has  conferred  upon  the  States  most  strongly,  will  ven 
ture  to  say  that  he  has  done  it  justice  ?  For  one,  I  am  not  san 
guine  enough  to  believe  that,  if  this  bond  of  union  were  dis 
solved,  any  other  tie  uniting  all  the  States  would  take  its  place 
for  generations  to  come.  It  requires  no  common  skill,  it  is  no 
piece  of  ordinary  political  journey-work,  to  form  a  system  which 
shall  hold  together  four-and-twenty  separate  State  sovereignties, 
the  line  of  whose  united  territories  runs  down  all  the  parallels 
of  latitude  from  New  Brunswick  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
whose  connected  breadth  stretches  from  the  sea  far  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  Nor  are  all  times  or  all  occasions  suited  to  such 
great  operations.  It  is  only  under  the  most  favorable  circum 
stances,  and  only  when  great  men  are  called  on  to  meet  great 


RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR.  3J3 

exigencies,  only  once  in  centuries,  that  such  fortunate  political 
results  are  to  be  attained.  Whoever,  therefore,  undervalues  this 
National  Union,  whoever  depreciates  it,  whoever  accustoms 
himself  to  consider  how  the  people  might  get  on  without  it, 
appears  to  me  to  encourage  sentiments  subversive  of  the  foun 
dations  of  our  prosperity. 

It  is  true  that  these  twenty-four  States  are,  more  or  less,  dif 
ferent  in  climate,  productions,  and  local  pursuits.  There  are 
planting  States,  grain-growing  States,  manufacturing  States, 
and  commercial  States.  But  those  several  interests,  if  not  iden 
tical,  are  not  therefore  inconsistent  and  hostile.  Far  from  it. 
They  unite,  on  the  contrary,  to  promote  an  aggregate  result  of 
unrivalled  national  happiness.  It  is  not  precisely  a  case  in 
which 

"  All  nature's  difference  keeps  all  nature's  peace  "  ; 

but  it  is  a  case  in  which  variety  of  climate  and  condition,  and 
diversities  of  pursuits  and  productions,  all  unite  to  exhibit  one 
harmonious,  grand,  and  magnificent  whole,  to  which  the  world 
may  be  proudly  challenged  to  show  an  equal.  In  my  opinion, 
no  man,  in  any  corner  of  any  one  of  these  States,  can  stand  up 
and  declare,  that  he  is  less  prosperous  or  less  happy  than  if  the 
general  government  had  never  existed.  Entertaining  these  senti 
ments,  and  feeling  their  force  most  deeply,  I  regard  it  as  the 
bounden  duty  of  every  good  citizen,  in  public  and  in  private  life, 
to  follow  the  admonition  of  Washington,  and  to  cherish  that 
Union  which  makes  us  one  people.  I  most  earnestly  deprecate, 
therefore,  whatever  occurs,  in  the  government  or  out  of  it,  calcu 
lated  to  endanger  the  Union  or  disturb  the  basis  on  which  it 
rests. 

Another  object  of  the  Constitution  I  take  to  be  such  as  is 
common  to  all  written  constitutions  of  free  governments ;  that 
is,  to  fix  limits  to  delegated  authority,  or,  in  other  words,  to  im 
pose  constitutional  restraints  on  political  power.  Some,  who 
esteem  themselves  republicans,  seem  to  think  no  other  security 
for  public  liberty  necessary  than  a  provision  for  a  popular  choice 
of  rulers.  If  political  power  be  delegated  power,  they  entertain 
little  fear  of  its  being  abused.  The  people's  servants  and  favor 
ites,  they  think,  may  be  safely  trusted.  Our  fathers,  certainly, 
were  not  of  this  school.  They  sought  to  make  assurance 

VOL.  i.  27 


314  .  RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR. 

doubly  sure,  by  providing,  in  the  first  place,  for  the  election  of 
political  agents  by  the  people  themselves,  at  short  intervals,  and, 
in  the  next  place,  by  prescribing  constitutional  restraints  on  all 
branches  of  this  delegated  authority.  It  is  not  among  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  times  most  ominous  for  good,  that  a  dimin 
ished  estimate  appears  to  be  placed  on  those  constitutional  se 
curities.  A  disposition  is  but  too  prevalent  to  substitute  per 
sonal  confidence  for  legal  restraint ;  to  put  trust  in  men  rather 
than  in  principles;  and  this  disposition  being  strongest,  as  it 
most  obviously  is,  whenever  party  spirit  prevails  to  the  greatest 
extent,  it  is  not  without  reason  that  fears  are  entertained  of  the 
existence  of  a  spirit  tending  strongly  to  an  unlimited,  if  it  be  but 
an  elective,  government. 

Surely,  Gentlemen,  this  government  can  go  through  no  such 
change.  Long  before  that  change  could  take  place,  the  Consti 
tution  would  be  shattered  to  pieces,  and  the  Union  of  the  States 
become  matter  of  past  history.  To  the  Union,  therefore,  as  well 
as  to  civil  liberty,  to  every  interest  which  we  enjoy  and  value,  to 
all  that  makes  us  proud  of  our  country,  or  which  renders  our 
country  lovely  in  our  own  eyes,  or  dear  to  our  own  hearts,  noth 
ing  can  be  more  repugnant,  nothing  more  hostile,  nothing  more 
directly  destructive,  than  excessive,  unlimited,  unconstitutional 
confidence  in  men ;  nothing  worse,  than  the  doctrine  that  official 
agents  may  interpret  the  public  will  in  their  own  way,  in  defi 
ance  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws ;  or  that  they  may  set  up 
any  thing  for  the  declaration  of  that  will  except  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  themselves  ;  or  that  any  public  officer,  high  or  low, 
should  undertake  to  constitute  himself  or  to  call  himself  the 
representative  of  the  people,  except  so  far  as  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  create  and  denominate  him  such  representative. 
There  is  no  usurpation  so  dangerous  as  that  which  comes  in 
the  borrowed  name  of  the  people.  If  from  some  other  author 
ity,  or  other  source,  prerogatives  be  attempted  to  be  enforced 
upon  the  people,  they  naturally  oppose  and  resist  it.  It  is  an 
open  enemy,  and  they  can  easily  subdue  it.  But  that  which 
professes  to  act  in  their  own  name,  and  by  their  own  authority, 
that  which  calls  itself  their  servant,  although  it  exercises  their 
power  without  legal  right  or  constitutional  sanction,  requires 
something  more  of  vigilance  to  detect,  and  something  more  of 
stern  patriotism  to  repress ;  and  if  it  be  not  seasonably  both  de- 


RECEPTION  AT  BANGOR.  315 

tected  and  repressed,  then  the  republic  is  already  in  the  down 
ward  path  of  those  which  have  gone  before  it. 

I  hold,  therefore,  Gentlemen,  that  a  strict  submission,  by 
every  branch  of  the  government,  to  the  limitations  and  restraints 
of  the  Constitution,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  all  security  for  the 
preservation  of  liberty ;  and  that  no  one  can  be  a  true  and  intel 
ligent  friend  of  that  liberty,  who  will  consent  that  any  man  in 
public  station,  whatever  he  may  think  of  the  honesty  of  his  mo 
tives,  shall  assume  to  exercise  an  authority  above  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws.  Whatever  government  is  not  a  government 
of  laws,  is  a  despotism,  let  it  be  called  what  it  may. 

Gentlemen,  on  an  occasion  like  this,  I  ought  not  to  detain 
you  longer.  Let  us  hope  for  the  best,  in  behalf  of  this  great 
and  happy  country,  and  of  our  glorious  Constitution.  Indeed, 
Gentlemen,  we  may  well  congratulate  ourselves  that  the  coun 
try  is  so  young,  so  fresh,  and  so  vigorous,  that  it  can  bear  a 
great  deal  of  bad  government.  It  can  take  an  enormous  load 
of  official  mismanagement  on  its  shoulders,  and  yet  go  ahead. 
Like  the  vessel  impelled  by  steam,  it  can  move  forward,  not 
only  without  other  than  the  ordinary  means,  but  even  w^hen 
those  means  oppose  it ;  it  can  make  its  way  in  defiance  of  the 
elements,  and 

"  Against  the  wind,  against  the  tide, 
Still  steady,  with  an  upright  keel." 

There  are  some  things,  however,  which  the  country  cannot 
stand.  It  cannot  stand  any  shock  of  civil  liberty,  or  any  disrup 
tion  of  the  Union.  Should  either  of  these  happen,  the  vessel  of 
the  state  will  have  no  longer  either  steerage  or  motion.  She 
will  lie  on  the  billows  helpless  and  hopeless,  the  scorn  and  con 
tempt  of  all  the  enemies  of  free  institutions,  and  an  object  of 
indescribable  grief  to  all  their  friends. 


PRESENTATION    OF    A    VASE. 


27 


INTRODUCTOKY.   NOTE. 


A  LARGE  number  of  the  citizens  of  Boston  being  desirous  to  offer  to 
Mr.  Webster  some  enduring  testimony  of  their  gratitude  for  his  services 
in  Congress,  and  more  especially  for  his  defence  of  the  Constitution  dur 
ing  the  crisis  of  Nullification,  a  committee  was  raised,  in  the  spring  of 
1835,  to  procure  a  piece  of  plate  which  should  be  worthy  of  such  an  ob 
ject.  By  their  direction,  and  more  particularly  under  the  superintend 
ence  of  one  of  their  number,  the  late  Mr.  George  W.  Brimmer,  to  whose 
taste  and  skill  the  committee  were  deeply  indebted  for  the  selection  of 
the  model  and  the  arrangement  of  the  devices,  the  beautiful  vase,  now 
well  known  throughout  the  country  as  the  WEBSTER  VASE,  was  prepared 
at  the  manufactory  of  Messrs.  Jones,  Lows,  &  Ball,  in  Boston.  After  it 
was  finished,  the  committee  found  it  impossible  to  withstand  the  wish,  both 
of  the  numerous  subscribers  and  of  the  public  generally,  to  witness  the 
ceremonies  and  hear  the  remarks  by  which  its  presentation  might  be 
accompanied.  It  was  accordingly  presented  to  Mr.  Webster  in  the  pres 
ence  of  three  or  four  thousand  spectators,  assembled  at  the  Odeon,  on  the 
evening  of  the  12th  of  October.  The  Vase  was  placed  on  a  pedestal 
covered  with  the  American  flag,  and  contained  on  its  front  the  following 
inscription :  — 

PRESENTED   TO 

DANIEL    WEBSTER 

THE    DEFENDER    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION, 

BY     THE     CITIZENS     OP     BOSTON, 

Oct.  12,  1835. 

The  chairman  of  the  committee  (Mr.  Z.  Jellison)  opened  the  meet 
ing  with  the  following  remarks :  — 

"  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  —  The  friends  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster  in  this 
city,  conceiving  the  propriety  of  giving  that  gentleman  an  expression  of 
the  high  estimation  in  which  they  hold  his  public  services,  and  wishing 


320  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

also  to  tender  him  a  testimonial  of  their  regard  for  his  moral  worth  and 
social  virtues,  called  a  meeting  of  consultation  on  the  subject,  some 
months  since,  at  which  a  committee  was  appointed,  with  instructions  to 
procure  a  suitable  piece  of  plate,  to  be  presented  to  him  in  their  behalf, 
before  his  official  duty  should  again  require  his  departure  hence  for  the 
seat  of  government.  In  obedience  to  their  instructions,  that  committee 
have  procured,  from  the  hands  of  the  most  skilful  artists  in  this  country, 
the  piece  of  plate  I  now  have  the  honor  to  exhibit  to  you. 

"  They  have  now  called  their  constituents  together,  for  the  purpose  of 
presenting  this  Vase  in  their  presence.  Had  the  committee  consulted  the 
wishes  only  of  the  gentleman  for  whom  it  is  intended,  this  presentation 
might,  perhaps,  have  taken  place  in  a  more  private  or  less  imposing  man 
ner  ;  but,  in  the  course  they  have  adopted,  they  have  been  governed  by 
the  wishes  of  the  citizens  at  large.  They  now  respectfully  ask  your  kind 
indulgence  while  they  proceed  in  the  discharge  of  this  part  of  their  duty. 

"The  committee  have  appointed,  as  their  organ  of  communication,  the 
Hon.  Francis  C.  Gray,  with  whom  I  now  have  the  pleasure  to  leave  the 
subject.-" 

Mr.  GRAY  then  rose,  and  spoke  as  follows :  — 

"  MR.  WEBSTER:  —  By  direction  of  the  committee,  and  in  behalf  of 
your  fellow-citizens,  who  have  caused  this  Vase  to  be  made,  I  now  request 
your  acceptance  of  it.  They  offer  it  in  token  of  their  high  sense  of  your 
public  character  and  services.  But  on  these  it  were  not  becoming  to 
dwell  in  addressing  yourself.  Nor  is  a  regard  for  these  the  only,  or  the 
principal,  motive  of  those  for  whom  I  speak.  They  offer  it  mainly  to 
evince  the  high  estimation  in  which  they  hold  the  political  sentiments  and 
principles  which  you  have  professed  arid  maintained.  There  may  un 
doubtedly  be  differences  of  opinion  among  them  with  regard  to  this  or 
that  particular  measure ;  and  a  blind,  indiscriminate,  wholesale  adhesion 
to  the  life  and  opinions  of  any  one  would  not  be  worth  offering,  nor  worth 
accepting,  among  freemen.  We  are  not  man-worshippers  here  in  Massa 
chusetts.  But  the  great  political  principles,  the  leading  views  of  policy, 
which  you  have  been  forward  to  assert  and  vindicate,  these  they  all  unite 
to  honor ;  and  in  rendering  public  homage  to  these,  they  feel  that  they 
are  not  so  much  paying  a  compliment  to  you,  as  performing  a  duty  to 
their  country. 

"  In  a  free  republic,  where  all  men  exercise  political  power,  the  preva 
lence  of  correct  views  and  principles  on  political  subjects  is  essential  to 
the  safety  of  the  state.  It  is  not  enough  that  their  truth  should  be  recog 
nized.  Their  operation  and  tendency  must  be  understood  and  appreci 
ated  ;  they  must  be  made  familiar  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  become 
closely  interwoven  with  their  whole  habits  of  thought  and  feeling,  objects 
of  attachment  to  which  they  may  cling  instantly  and  instinctively  in  all 
time  of  doubt  or  peril,  so  as  not  to  be  swept  away  by  any  sudden  flood 
of  prejudice  or  passion.  Hence  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  embrace 
all  fit  occasions,  nay,  to  seek  fit  occasions,  for  declaring  his  adherence  to 
such  principles,  and  giving  them  the  support  of  his  influence,  however 
high  or  however  humble  that  influence  may  be.  There  is  no  justice, 
therefore,  in  the  complaint  often  made  against  the  members  of  our  legis- 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE.  321 

lative  assemblies,  that  they  sometimes  speak  not  for  their  audience  mere 
ly,  but  for  their  constituents ;  seeking  not  simply  to  affect  the  decision  of 
the  question  then  pending,  but  to  influence  the  public  sentiment  with  re 
gard  to  the  principles  involved  in  it.  This  affords  no  ground  of  censure 
against  them,  so  they  speak  well  and  wisely.  The  practice  may  be 
abused,  no  doubt ;  but,  in  itself,  it  is  a  natural,  inevitable  right.  So  it 
should  be  in  relation  to  all  important  principles  in  a  free  country.  Noth 
ing  else  but  the  excitement,  kindled  by  the  conflict  of  debate,  will  ever 
make  those  great  principles  subjects  of  general  attention  and  interest. 
Nothing  else  but  the  observation  of  their  application  in  practice  can  make 
them  generally  understood  and  appreciated.  We  all  recollect  questions 
(and  among  them  that  on  Mr.  Foot's  resolutions,  not  likely  soon  to  be 
forgotten),  the  vote  on  which  was  as  certainly  known  before  the  discus 
sion  as  after  it,  and  known  to  be  unalterable  by  any  argument  or  persua 
sion  ;  and  yet  the  discussion  of  which  was  so  far  from  being  uninterest 
ing  and  unprofitable,  that  it  was  echoed  and  reechoed  through  the  land, 
making  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  the  public  mind,  establishing 
incontrovertibly  vital  principles  before  disputed,  and  thus  giving  new 
strength  and  stability  to  our  free  institutions,  and  forming,  I  may  almost 
say,  an  epoch  in  our  political  history. 

"  On  this  and  similar  occasions,  not  to  dwell  on  your  steadfast  adherence 
to  those  more  general  principles  of  civil  liberty,  which  are  equally  impor 
tant  in  every  age  and  country,  —  on  such  occasions  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  peculiar  to  our  system  of  government  have  always  had  in  you  a  de 
cided  advocate,  ever  ready  to  develop  and  illustrate  their  nature  and  oper 
ation,  and  to  enforce  the  obligations  which  they  impose.  Among  the 
most  prominent  peculiarities  of  our  system  is  the  fact  that  the  United 
States  are  not  a  confederacy  of  independent  sovereigns,  the  subjects  of 
each  of  whom  are  responsible  to  him  alone  for  their  compliance  with  the 
obligations  of  the  compact,  but  that,  for  certain  specified  purposes,  they 
form  one  nation,  every  citizen  of  which  is  responsible,  directly,  immedi 
ately,  exclusively,  to  the  whole  nation  for  the  performance  of  his  duties 
to  the  whole ;  that  the  Constitution  is  not  a  treaty,  nor  any  thing  like  a 
treaty,  but  a  frame  of  government,  resting  on  the  same  foundations,  and 
supported  by  the  same  sanctions,  as  any  other  government,  to  be  sub 
verted  only  by  the  same  means,  by  revolution,  —  revolution  to  be  brought 
about  by  the  same  authority  which  would  warrant  a  revolution  in  any 
government,  and  by  none  other,  —  to  be  justified,  when  justifiable,  by  the 
same  paramount  necessity,  and  by  nothing  less.  This  government  is  not 
the  government  of  the  States,  but  that  of  the  people  ;  and  it  behooves  the 
people,  every  one  of  the  people,  to  do  his  utmost  to  preserve  it ;  not  in 
form  merely,  but  in  its  full  efficiency,  as  a  practical  system  ;  to  maintain 
the  Union  as  it  is,  in  all  its  integrity,  —  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  in  all  its 
purity,  and  in  all  its  strength ;  and  when  they  are  in  danger,  to  hasten  to 
their  support  promptly,  frankly,  fearlessly,  undeterred,  and  unencumbered 
by  any  political  combination,  let  who  will  be  his  companions  in  the  good 
cause,  and  let  who  will  hang  back  from  it. 

"The  other  great  peculiarity  of  our  political  system  —  and  on  these  two 
hang  all  the  liberty  and  hopes  of  America  —  is  this :  that  the  supreme 
power  or  sovereignty  is  divided  between  the  State  and  national  govern- 


322  PRESENTATION  OF   A    VASE. 

ments,  and  the  portion  allotted  to  each  distributed  among  several  inde 
pendent  departments ;  and  this,  notwithstanding  the  maxim  of  European 
politicians,  too  hastily  adopted  by  some  of  our  own  statesmen,  that  sov 
ereignty  is,  in  its  nature,  indivisible.  By  sovereignty,  I  do  not  mean,  and 
they  do  not  mean,  the  ultimate  right  of  the  people  to  establish  and  sub 
vert  governments,  the  right  of  revolution,  as  it  has  been  called ;  for,  thus 
understood,  it  would  be  absurd  to  inquire,  as  they  constantly  do,  where 
the  sovereignty  resides  in  any  particular  government,  since  this  ultimate 
sovereignty  never  can  reside  anywhere  but  in  the  people  themselves.  It 
is  inherent  in  them  and  inalienable,  existing  equally  as  a  right,  however 
its  exercise  may  be  impeded,  in  free  and  despotic  governments.  But  by 
sovereignty  must  be  understood  the  supreme  power  of  the  government, 
the  highest  power  which  can  lawfully  be  exercised  by  any  constituted  au 
thority.  Now,  let  the  politicians  of  Europe  say  what  they  will  of  the 
indivisibility  of  this  power,  we  know  that,  among  us,  it  is  in  point  of  fact 
divided ;  that  in  relation  to  some  objects,  the  supreme  power  is  in  the 
national  government,  subject  to  no  earthly  control  but  that  of  the  people, 
exercising  their  right  of  revolution ;  and  that  in  relation  to  others,  it  is  in 
the  State  governments,  subject  to  the  same  and  to  no  other  control ;  and 
that  in  each  of  these  governments  the  power  conferred  is  divided  among 
the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  departments,  each  of  which  is  en 
tirely  independent  in  the  performance  of  its  appropriate  duties. 

"  This  system  of  practical  checks  and  balances,  altogether  peculiar  to 
us,  is  designed  to  operate,  and  does  operate,  for  the  restraint  of  power  and 
the  protection  of  liberty.  But,  like  every  earthly  good,  it  brings  with  it 
its  attendant  evil  in  the  danger  of  encroachment  and  collision.  To  guard 
against  these  dangers  is  one  of  the  most  important,  most  difficult,  most 
delicate  of  our  public  duties ;  to  see  that  the  national  government  shall 
not  encroach  upon  the  power  of  the  States,  nor  the  States  on  that  of  the 
nation ;  that  no  State  shall  interfere  with  the  domestic  legislation  of  an 
other,  nor  lightly  nor  unjustly  suspect  another  of  seeking  to  interfere  with 
its  own  ;  but  that  each  of  these  several  governments,  and  every  depart 
ment  in  each,  shall  be  strictly  confined  to  its  proper  sphere  ;  that  no 
one  shall  evade  any  responsibility  which  is  imposed  on  him  by  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  laws,  and  no  one  assume  any  responsibility  which  is 
not  so. 

"  But  by  what  power  can  this  be  accomplished  ?  There  is  only  one. 
Physical  force  will  not  do  it.  The  system  of  our  government  has  been 
compared  to  that  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  move  on,  orb  within  orb 
cycle  within  cycle,  in  apparent  confusion,  but  in  real,  uninterrupted,  un 
alterable  harmony.  And  the  harmony  of  our  system  can  only  be  main 
tained  by  a  power,  which,  like  that  regulating  their  movements,  is  unseen, 
unfelt,  yet  irresistible,  —  Public  Opinion. 

"  This  is  the  precise  circumstance  which  renders  the  prevalence  of  just 
political  views  and  principles  peculiarly  important  among  us,  and  secures 
to  him,  who  labors  faithfully  and  successfully  to  promote  their  diffusion, 
the  praise  of  having  deserved  well  of  his  country. 

"  The  opinions  of  men,  however,  are  invariably  and  inevitably  affected 
by  their  interests  and  their  feelings.  This  consideration  opens  a  wide 
field  of  duty  to  the  American  statesman,  requiring  him  to  prevent,  by 


PRESENTATION   OF  A  VASE.  323 

every  means  in  his  power,  all  collisions  of  interest  and  all  exasperations 
of  feeling ;  to  correct  and  rebuke  the  misrepresentations  which  tend  to 
array  one  part  of  the  country  against  another,  or  one  portion  of  society 
against  another,  as  if  their  interests  were  adverse,  whereas  in  truth  they 
are  one  ;  and,  avoiding  the  paltry  cunning  which  plays  off  the  differ 
ent  parts  of  the  country  against  each  other,  sacrificing  the  interests  of 
the  whole  to  this  part  to-day,  on  condition  that  they  shall  be  sacrificed 
to  another  to-morrow,  by  which  means  they  are  always  sacrificed,  to 
be  governed  by  that  liberal,  enlightened,  far-sighted  policy,  which  in  all 
questions  of  expediency  looks  invariably  and  exclusively  to  the  perma 
nent  interests  of  the  whole  nation,  considered  as  one,  —  which  aims  to 
impress  on  the  minds  and  the  hearts  of  this  people,  deeply,  indelibly, 
the  great  truth,  that  the  prosperity  and  the  glory  of  the  United  States, 
their  improvement  and  happiness  at  home,  their  rank  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  must  be  proportioned  to  the  strength  and  cordiality  of  their 
union,  and  can  only  be  carried  to  their  highest  pitch  by  the  universal 
conviction,  the  deep-seated  and  overruling  sentiment,  that,  for  the  pur 
poses  set  forth  in  the  Constitution,  we  are  one  people,  one  and  indivisi 
ble  ;  and  that  for  us  to  break  the  bond  that  makes  us  one,  and  resolve 
this  glorious  Union  into  its  original  elements,  would  be  as  mad  and  as 
fatal  as  for  England  to  go  back  again  to  her  Heptarchy. 

"  The  statesman  who  is  governed  by  these  principles  and  this  policy, 
whose  great  object  is  not  to  win  the  spoils  of  victory,  nor  even  its  lau 
rels,  but  to  fight  the  good  fight  and  render  faithful  service  to  his  country, 
will  never  want  opportunity  to  merit  the  public  gratitude,  whatever  may 
be  his  political  position.  If  in  the  majority,  considering  that  the  dura 
tion  of  any  administration  is  only  a  day  in  the  existence  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  yet  a  day  which  must  affect  all  that  are  to  follow  it,  he  will 
never  be  tempted  to  swerve  from  these  great  principles  by  any  tempo 
rary  advantage,  even  to  the  whole  community,  still  less  by  any  local  or 
partial  benefit,  and  least  of  all  by  any  party  or  personal  consideration. 
He  will  not  make  it  the  chief  object  of  government  to  extend  and  per 
petuate  the  power  of  his  party.  He  will  not  regard  his  political  oppo 
nents  as  enemies,  over  whom  he  has  triumphed  and  whom  he  is  to  de 
spoil.  He  will  not  seek  to  throw  off  or  evade  the  restraints  imposed 
by  the  Constitution  on  all  power,  nor  will  he  bestow  public  offices  as  the 
reward  or  the  motive  for  adherence  to  his  party  or  his  person.  If  in  the 
minority,  he  will  find  inducement  enough  and  reward  enough  for  the 
most  strenuous  exertion,  in  the  conviction,  that  an  intelligent,  resolute, 
vigilant  minority  is  not  utterly  powerless  in  our  government,  but  may 
often  control,  modify,  or  even  arrest  the  most  pernicious  schemes  of 
reckless  rulers,  and  diminish,  if  not  prevent,  the  evils  of  misrule.  He 
will  consider  also,  that  in  political  science,  as  in  the  other  moral  sciences, 
truth  must  always  force  its  way  slowly  against  general  opposition,  and 
that  although  the  great  principles  for  which  he  contends  should  not  tri 
umph  in  the  debate  of  the  day,  they  may  yet,  if  ably  sustained,  ulti 
mately  triumph  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  come  at  last  to  rule  the 
land  ;  and  that  thenceforward,  so  long  as  their  beneficent  influence 
shall  endure,  so  long  as  they  shall  be  remembered  upon  earth,  so  long 
will  his  name  and  his  praise  endure  who  shall  have  watched  over  them 
in  their  weakness,  and  struggled  for  them  in  their  adversity. 


324  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

"  But  I  must  not  be  tempted  beyond  the  tone  which  befits  the  part  as 
signed  me,  which  is  simply  to  state  the  motives  and  feelings  of  those  for 
whom  I  speak  on  this  occasion ;  and  I  am  sure,  Gentlemen,  that  I  am 
the  faithful  interpreter  of  your  sentiments,  when  I  say,  that  it  is  from 
attachment  to  the  great  principles  of  civil  liberty  and  constitutional  gov 
ernment,  that  you  offer  this  token  of  respect  to  one  who  has  always 
maintained  them  and  been  governed  by  them  ;  to  one  whom  this  peo 
ple,  because  he  has  been  guided  by  those  principles,  and  for  the  sake 
of  those  principles,  delight  to  honor ;  whom  they  honor  with  their  confi 
dence,  whom  they  honor  by  cherishing  the  memory  of  his  past  services, 
and  by  their  best  hopes  and  wishes  for  the  future,  and  whom  they  will 
honor,  let  who  else  may  shrink  and  falter,  by  their  cordial  efforts  to 
raise  him  to  that  high  station  for  which  so  many  patriotic  citizens,  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  are  now  holding  him  up  as  a  candidate  ; 
and  they  will  do  this  on  the  full  conviction,  that  he  will  always  be  true 
to  those  principles,  wherever  his  country  may  call  him." 

To  this  address  Mr.  WEBSTER  made  the  following  reply. 


PRESENTATION   OF  A  VASE.* 


MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  I  accept,  with  grateful  re 
spect,  the  present  which  it  is  your  pleasure  to  make.  I  value  it. 
It  bears  an  expression  of  your  regard  for  those  political  princi 
ples  which  I  have  endeavored  to  maintain ;  and  though  the 
material  were  less  costly,  or  the  workmanship  less  elegant,  any 
durable  evidence  of  your  approbation  could  not  but  give  me 
high  satisfaction. 

This  approbation  is  the  more  gratifying,  as  it  is  not  bestowed 
for  services  connected  with  local  questions,  or  local  interests,  or 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  peculiarly  beneficial  to  your 
selves,  but  for  efforts  which  had  the  interests  of  the  whole  coun 
try  for  their  object,  and  which  were  useful,  if  useful  at  all,  to  all 
who  live  under  the  blessings  of  the  Constitution  and  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  twelve  or  thirteen  years,  Gentlemen,  since  I  was  honored 
with  a  seat  in  Congress,  by  the  choice  of  the  citizens  of  Boston. 
They  saw  fit  to  repeat  that  choice  more  than  once ;  and  I  em 
brace,  with  pleasure,  this  opportunity  of  expressing  to  them  my 
sincere  and  profound  sense  of  obligation  for  these  manifesta 
tions  of  confidence.  At  a  later  period,  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  saw  fit  to  transfer  me  to  another  place ;  f  and  have  again 
renewed  the  trust,  under  circumstances  which  I  have  felt  to 
impose  upon  me  new  obligations  of  duty,  and  an  increased  de 
votion  to  the  political  welfare  of  the  country.  These  twelve  or 
thirteen  years,  Gentlemen,  have  been  years  of  labor,  and  not 
without  sacrifices ;  but  both  have  been  more  than  compensated 

*  Speech  delivered  in  the  Odeon,  at  Boston,  on  Occasion  of  the  Presentation 
of  a  Vase  by  Citizens  of  that  Place,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1835. 
f  The  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
VOL.  i.  28 


326  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

by  the  kindness,  the  good-will,  and  the  favorable  interpretation 
with  which  my  discharge  of  official  duties  has  been  received. 
In  this  changing  world,  we  can  hardly  say  that  we  possess  what 
is  present,  and  the  future  is  all  unknown.  But  the  past  is  ours. 
Its  acquisitions,  and  its  enjoyments,  are  safe.  And  among  these 
acquisitions,  among  the  treasures  of  the  past  most  to  be  cher 
ished  and  preserved,  I  shall  ever  reckon  the  proofs  of  esteem 
and  confidence  which  I  have  received  from  the  citizens  of  Bos 
ton  and  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts. 

In  one  respect,  Gentlemen,  your  present  oppresses  me.  It 
overcomes  me  by  its  tone  of  commendation.  It  assigns  to  me 
a  character  of  which  I  feel  I  am  not  worthy.  "  The  Defender 
of  the  Constitution  "  is  a  title  quite  too  high  for  me.  He  who 
shall  prove  himself  the  ablest  among  the  able  men  of  the  coun 
try,  he  who  shall  serve  it  longest  among  those  who  may  serve 
it  long,  he  on  whose  labors  all  the  stars  of  benignant  fortune 
shall  shed  their  selectest  influence,  will  have  praise  enough,  and 
reward  enough,  if,  at  the  end  of  his  political  and  earthly  career, 
though  that  career  may  have  been  as  bright  as  the  track  of  the 
sun  across  the  sky,  the  marble  under  which  he  sleeps,  and  that 
much  better  record,  the  grateful  breasts  of  his  living  country 
men,  shall  pronounce  him  "  the  Defender  of  the  Constitution." 
It  is  enough  for  me,  Gentlemen,  to  be  connected,  in  the  most 
humble  manner,  with  the  defence  and  maintenance  of  this  great 
wonder  of  modern  times,  and  this  certain  wonder  of  all  future 
times.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  stand  in  the  ranks,  and  only  to  be 
counted  as  one  of  its  defenders. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  I  am  confident,  will 
protect  the  name  and  the  memory  both  of  its  founders  and 
of  its  friends,  even  of  its  humblest  friends.  It  will  impart  to 
both  something  of  its  own  ever  memorable  and  enduring  dis 
tinction  ;  I  had  almost  said,  something  of  its  own  everlasting 
remembrance.  Centuries  hence,  when  the  vicissitudes  of  hu 
man  affairs  shall  have  broken  it,  if  ever  they  shall  break  it,  into 
fragments,  these  very  fragments,  every  shattered  column,  every 
displaced  foundation-stone,  shall  yet  be  sure  to  bring  them  all 
into  recollection,  and  attract  to  them  the  respect  and  gratitude 
of  mankind. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  to  pay  respect  to  this  Constitution,  it  is  to 
manifest  your  attachment  to  it,  your  sense  of  its  value,  and  your 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE.  32? 

devotion  to  its  true  principles,  that  you  have  sought  this  occasion. 
It  is  not  to  pay  an  ostentatious  personal  compliment.  If  it  were, 
it  would  be  unworthy  both  of  you  and  of  me.  It  is  not  to  man 
ifest  attachment  to  individuals,  independent  of  ah1  considerations 
of  principles ;  if  it  were,  I  should  feel  it  my  duty  to  tell  you, 
friends  as  you  are,  that  you  were  doing  that  which,  at  this  very 
moment,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  threatening  dangers  to  the 
Constitution  itself.  Your  gift  would  have  no  value  in  my  eyes, 
this  occasion  would  be  regarded  by  me  as  an  idle  pageant,  if  I 
did  not  know  that  they  are  both  but  modes,  chosen  by  you,  to 
signify  your  attachment  to  the  true  principles  of  the  Constitu 
tion  ;  your  fixed  purpose,  so  far  as  in  you  lies,  to  maintain  those 
principles ;  and  your  resolution  to  support  public  men,  and  stand 
by  them,  so  long  as  they  shall  support  and  stand  by  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  country,  and  no  longer. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  country !  "  Gentlemen,  often  as  I 
am  called  to  contemplate  this  subject,  its  importance  always 
rises,  and  magnifies  itself  more  and  more,  before  me.  I  cannot 
view  its  preservation  as  a  concern  of  narrow  extent,  or  tem 
porary  duration.  On  the  contrary,  I  see  in  it  a  vast  interest, 
which  is  to  run  down  with  the  generations  of  men,  and  to 
spread  over  a  great  portion  of  the  earth  with  a  direct,  and 
over  the  rest  with  an  indirect,  but  a  most  powerful  influence. 
When  I  speak  of  it  here,  in  this  thick  crowd  of  fellow-citizens 
and  friends,  I  yet  behold,  thronging  about  me,  a  much  larger 
and  more  imposing  crowd.  I  see  a  united  rush  of  the  present 
and  the  future.  I  see  all  the  patriotic  of  our  own  land,  and 
our  own  time.  I  see  also  the  many  millions  of  their  pos 
terity,  and  I  see,  too,  the  lovers  of  human  liberty  from  every 
part  of  the  earth,  from  beneath  the  oppressions  of  thrones,  and 
hierarchies,  and  dynasties,  from  amidst  the  darkness  of  igno 
rance,  degradation,  and  despotism,  into  which  any  ray  of  politi 
cal  light  has  penetrated-;  I  see  all  those  countless  multitudes 
gather  about  us,  and  I  hear  their  united  and  earnest  voices,  con 
juring  us,  in  whose  charge  the  treasure  now  is,  to  hold  on,  and 
hold  on  to  the  last,  by  that  which  is  our  own  highest  enjoyment 
and  their  best  hope. 

Filled  with  these  sentiments,  Gentlemen,  and  having  through 
my  political  life  hitherto  always  acted  under  the  deepest  con 
viction  of  their  truth  and  importance,  it  is  natural  that  I  should 
have  regarded  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  as  the  first 


328  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

great  political  object  to  be  secured.  But  I  claim  no  exclusive 
merit.  I  should  deem  it,  especially,  both  unbecoming  and  un 
just  in  me  to  separate  myself,  in  this  respect,  from  other  public 
servants  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  The  distinguished  gen 
tlemen  who  have  preceded  and  followed  me  in  the  representa 
tion  of  the  city,  their  associates  from  other  districts  of  the  State, 
and  my  late  worthy  and  most  highly  esteemed  colleague,  are 
entitled,  one  and  all,  to  a  full  share  in  the  public  approbation. 
If  accidental  circumstances,  or  a  particular  position,  have  some 
times  rendered  me  more  prominent,  equal  patriotism  and  equal 
zeal  have  yet  made  them  equally  deserving.  It  were  invidious 
to  enumerate  these  fellow-laborers,  or  to  discriminate  among 
them.  Long  may  they  live  !  and  I  could  hardly  express  a  bet 
ter  wish  for  the  interest  and  honor  of  the  States,  than  that  the 
public  men  who  may  follow  them  may  be  as  disinterested,  as 
patriotic,  and  as  able  as  they  have  proved  themselves. 

There  have  been,  Gentlemen,  it  is  true,  anxious  moments. 
That  was  an  anxious  occasion,  to  which  the  gentleman  who  has 
addressed  me  in  your  behalf  has  alluded ;  I  mean  the  debate  in 
January,  1830.  It  seemed  to  me  then  that  the  Constitution  was 
about  to  be  abandoned.  Threatened  with  most  serious  dangers, 
it  was  not  only  not  defended,  but  attacked,  as  I  thought,  and 
weakened  and  wounded  in  its  vital  powers  and  faculties,  by 
those  to  whom  the  country  naturally  looks  for  its  defence  and 
protection.  It  appeared  to  me  that  the  Union  was  about  to  go 
to  pieces,  before  the  people  were  at  all  aware  of  the  extent  of 
the  danger.  The  occasion  was  not  .sought,  but  forced  upon  us  ; 
it  seemed  to  me  momentous,  and  I  confess  that  I  felt  that  even 
the  little  that  I  could  do,  in  such  a  crisis,  was  called  for  by  every 
motive  which  could  be  addressed  to  a  lover  of  the  Constitution. 
I  took  a  part  in  the  debate,  therefore,  with  my  whole  heart 
already  in  the  subject,  and  careless  for  every  thing  in  the  result, 
except  the  judgment  which  the  people  of  the  United  States 
should  form  upon  the  questions  involved  in  the  discussion.  I 
believe  that  judgment  has  been  definitely  pronounced ;  but  noth 
ing  is  due  to  me,  beyond  the  merit  of  having  made  an  earnest 
effort  to  present  the  true  question  to  the  people,  and  to  invoke 
for  it  that  attention  from  them,  which  its  high  importance  ap 
peared  to  me  to  demand. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Gentlemen,  is  of  a 
peculiar  structure.     Our  whole  system  is  peculiar.     It  is  fash 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE.  329 

ioned  according  to  no  existing  model,  likened  to  no  precedent, 
and  yet  founded  on  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundations  of  all 
free  governments,  wherever  such  governments  exist.  It  is  a 
complicated  system.  It  is  elaborate,  and  in  some  sense  artifi 
cial,  in  its  composition.  We  have  twenty-four  State  sovereign 
ties,  all  exercising  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  powers. 
Some  of  the  sovereignties,  or  States,  had  long  existed,  and,  sub 
ject  only  to  the  restraint  of  the  power  of  the  parent  country,  had 
been  accustomed  to  the  forms  and  to  the  exercise  of  the  powers 
of  representative  republics.  Others  of  them  are  new  creations, 
coming  into  existence  only  under  the  Constitution  itself;  but  all 
now  standing  on  an  equal  footing. 

The  general  government,  under  which  all  these  States  are 
united,  is  not,  as  has  been  justly  remarked  by  Mr.  Gray,  a 
confederation.  It  is  much  more  than  a  confederation.  It  is  a 
popular  representative  government,  with  all  the  departments, 
and  all  the  functions  and  organs,  of  such  a  government.  But  it 
is  still  a  limited,  a  restrained,  a  severely-guarded  government. 
It  exists  under  a  written  constitution,  and  all  that  human  wis 
dom  could  do  is  done,  to  define  its  powers  and  to  prevent  their 
abuse.  It  is  placed  in  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  safest  me 
dium  between  dangerous  authority  on  the  one  hand,  and  debil 
ity  and  inefficiency  on  the  other.  I  think  that  happy  medium 
was  found,  by  the  exercise  of  the  greatest  political  sagacity,  and 
the  influence  of  the  highest  good  fortune.  We  cannot  move  the 
system  either  way,  without  the  probability  of  hurtful  change ; 
and  as  experience  has  taught  us  its  safety,  and  its  usefulness, 
when  left  where  it  is,  our  duty  is  a  plain  one. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  a  system  thus  complicated  must  be 
accompanied  by  more  or  less  of  danger,  in  every  stage  of  its  ex 
istence.  It  has  not  the  simplicity  of  despotism.  It  is  not  a 
plain  column,  that  stands  self-poised  and  self-supported.  Nor  is 
it  a  loose,  irregular,  unfixed,  and  undefined  system  of  rule,  which 
admits  of  constant  and  violent  changes,  without  losing  its  char 
acter.  But  it  is  a  balanced  and  guarded  system ;  a  system  of 
checks  and  controls;  a  system  in  which  powers  are  carefully 
delegated,  and  as  carefully  limited ;  a  system  in  which  the  sym 
metry  of  the  parts  is  designed  to  produce  an  aggregate  whole, 
which  shall  be  favorable  to  personal  liberty,  favorable  to  public 
prosperity,  and  favorable  to  national  glory.  And  who  can  deny, 
28* 


330  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

that,  by  a  trial  of  fifty  years,  this  American  system  of  govern 
ment  has  proved  itself  capable  of  conferring  all  these  blessings  ? 
These  years  have  been  years  of  great  agitation  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  In  the  course  of  them  the  face  of  Europe  has 
been  completely  changed.  Old  and  corrupt  governments  have 
been  destroyed,  and  new  ones,  erected  in  their  places,  have  been 
destroyed  too,  sometimes  in  rapid  succession.  Yet,  through  all 
the  extraordinary,  the  most  extraordinary  scenes  of  this  half-cen 
tury,  the  free,  popular,  representative  government  of  the  United 
States  has  stood,  and  has  afforded  security  for  liberty,  for  prop 
erty,  and  for  reputation,  to  all  citizens. 

That  it  has  been  exposed  to  many  dangers,  that  it  has  met 
critical  moments,  is  certain.  That  it  is  now  exposed  to  dangers, 
and  that  a  crisis  is  now  before  it,  is  equally  clear,  in  my  judg 
ment.  But  it  has  hitherto  been  preserved,  and  vigilance  and 
patriotism  may  rescue  it  again. 

Our  dangers,  Gentlemen,  are  not  from  without.  We  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  foreign  powers,  except  those  interruptions 
of  the  occupations  of  life  which  all  wars  occasion.  The  dangers 
to  our  system,  as  a  system,  do  not  spring  from  that  quarter. 
On  the  contrary,  the  pressure  of  foreign  hostility  would  be  most 
likely  to  unite  us,  and  to  strengthen  our  union,  by  an  augmented 
sense  of  its  utility  and  necessity.  But  our  dangers  are  from 
within.  I  do  not  now  speak  of  those  dangers  which  have  in  all 
ages  beset  republican  governments,  such  as  luxury  among  the 
rich,  the  corruption  of  public  officers,  and  the  general  degrada 
tion  of  public  morals.  I  speak  only  of  those  peculiar  dangers  to 
which  the  structure  of  our  government  particularly  exposes  it,  in 
addition  to  all  other  ordinary  dangers.  These  arise  among  our 
selves  ;  they  spring  up  at  home ;  and  the  evil  which  they  threat 
en  is  no  less  than  disunion,  or  the  overthrow  of  the  whole  sys 
tem.  Local  feelings  and  local  parties,  a  notion  sometimes  sed 
ulously  cultivated  of  opposite  interests  in  different  portions  of 
the  Union,  evil  prophecies  respecting  its  duration,  cool  calcula 
tions  upon  the  benefits  of  separation,  a  narrow  feeling  that  can 
not  embrace  all  the  States  as  one  country,  an  unsocial,  anti- 
national,  and  half-belligerent  spirit,  which  sometimes  betrays 
itself,  —  all  these  undoubtedly  are  causes  which  affect,  more  or 
less,  our  prospect  of  holding  together.  All  these  are  unpropi- 
tious  influences. 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE.  331 

The  Constitution,  again,  is  founded  on  compromise,  and  the 
most  perfect  and  absolute  good  faith,  in  regard  to  every  stipula 
tion  of  this  kind  contained  in  it  is  indispensable  to  its  preserva 
tion.  Every  attempt  to  accomplish  even  the  best  purpose,  every 
attempt  to  grasp  that  which  is  regarded  as  an  immediate  good, 
in  violation  of  these  stipulations,  is  full  of  danger  to  the  whole 
Constitution.  I  need  not  say,  also,  that  possible  collision  be 
tween  the  general  and  the  State  governments  always  has  been, 
is,  and  ever  must  be,  a  source  of  danger  to  be  strictly  watched 
by  wise  men. 

But,  Gentlemen,  as  I  have  spoken  of  dangers  now,  in  my 
judgment  actually  existing,  I  will  state  at  once  my  opinions  on 
that  point,  without  fear  and  without  reserve.  I  reproach  no 
man,  I  accuse  no  man ;  but  I  speak  of  things  as  they  appear  to 
me,  and  I  speak  of  principles  and  practices  which  I  deem  most 
alarming.  I  think,  then,  Gentlemen,  that  a  great  practical 
change  is  going  on  in  the  Constitution,  which,  if  not  checked, 
must  completely  alter  its  whole  character.  This  change  consists 
in  the  diminution  of  the  just  powers  of  Congress  on  the  one 
hand,  and  in  the  vast  increase  of  executive  authority  on  the 
other.  The  government  of  the  United  States,  in  the  aggregate, 
or  the  legislative  power  of  Congress,  seems  fast  losing,  one  after 
another,  its  accustomed  powers.  One  by  one,  they  are  practi 
cally  struck  out  of  the  Constitution.  What  has  become  of  the 
power  of  internal  improvement  ?  Does  it  remain  in  the  Consti 
tution,  or  is  it  erased  by  the  repeated  exercise  of  the  President's 
veto,  and  the  acquiescence  in  that  exercise  of  all  who  call  them 
selves  his  friends,  whatever  their  own  opinions  of  the  Constitu 
tion  may  be  ?  The  power  to  create  a  national  bank,  a  power 
exercised  for  forty  years,  approved  by  all  Presidents,  and  by  Con 
gress  at  all  times,  and  sanctioned  by  a  solemn  adjudication  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  is  it  not  true  that  party  has  agreed  to  strike 
this  power,  too,  from  the  Constitution,  in  compliance  with  what 
has  been  openly  called  the  interests  of  party  ?  Nay,  more ;  that 
great  power,  the  power  of  protecting  domestic  industry,  who 
can  tell  me  whether  that  power  is  now  regarded  as  in  the  Con 
stitution,  or  out  of  it  ? 

But,  if  it  be  true  that  the  diminution  of  the  just  powers  of 
Congress,  in  these  particulars,  has  been  attempted,  and  attempt 
ed  with  more  or  less  success,  it  is  still  more  obvious,  I  think, 
thai  the  executive  power  of  the  government  has  been  danger- 


332  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

ously  increased.  It  is  spread,  in  the  first  place,  over  all  that 
ground  from  which  the  legislative  power  of  Congress  is  driven. 
Congress  can  no  longer  establish  a  bank,  controlled  by  the  laws 
of  the  United  States,  amenable  to  the  authority,  and  open,  at 
all  times,  to  the  examination  and  inspection  of  the  legislature. 
It  is  no  longer  constitutional  to  make  such  a  bank,  for  the  safe 
custody  of  the  public  treasure.  But  of  the  thousand  State  cor 
porations  already  existing,  it  is  constitutional  for  the  executive 
government  to  select  such  as  it  pleases,  to  intrust  the  public 
money  to  their  keeping,  without  responsibility  to  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  without  the  duty  of  exhibiting  their  concerns,  at 
any  time,  to  the  committees  of  Congress,  and  with  no  other 
guards  or  securities  than  such  as  executive  discretion  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  banks  themselves  on  the  other,  may  see  fit  to 
agree  to. 

And  so  of  internal  improvement.  It  is  not  every  thing  in  the 
nature  of  public  improvements  which  is  forbidden.  It  is  only 
that  the  selection  of  objects  is  not  with  Congress.  Whatever 
appears  to  the  executive  discretion  to  be  of  a  proper  nature,  or 
such  as  comes  within  certain  not  very  intelligible  limits,  may  be 
tolerated.  And  even  with  respect  to  the  tariff  itself,  wThile  as  a 
system  it  is  denounced  as  unconstitutional,  it  is  probable  some 
portion  of  it  might  find  favor. 

But  it  is  not  the  frequent  use  of  the  power  of  the  veto,  it  is 
not  the  readiness  with  which  men  yield  their  own  opinions,  and 
see  important  powers  practically  obliterated  from  the  Constitu 
tion,  in  order  to  subserve  the  interest  of  the  party,  it  is  not  even 
all  this  which  furnishes,  at  the  present  moment,  the  most  strik 
ing  demonstration  of  the  increase  of  executive  authority.  It  is 
the  use  of  the  power  of  patronage ;  it  is  the  universal  giving 
and  taking  away  of  all  place  and  office,  for  reasons  no  way  con 
nected  with  the  public  service,  or  the  faithful  execution  of  the 
laws ;  it  is  this  which  threatens  with  overthrow  all  the  true  prin 
ciples  of  the  government.  Patronage  is  reduced  to  a  system. 
It  is  used  as  the  patrimony,  the  property  of  party.  Every  office 
is  a  largess,  a  bounty,  a  favor ;  and  it  is  expected  to  be  compen 
sated  by  service  and  fealty.  A  numerous  and  well-disciplined 
corps  of  office-holders,  acting  with  activity  and  zeal,  and  with 
incredible  union  of  purpose,  is  attempting  to  seize  on  the  strong 
posts,  and  to  control,  effectually,  the  expression  of  the  public 
will.  As  has  been  said  of  the  Turks  in  Europe,  they  are  not  so 


PRESENTATION   OF   A  VASE.  333 

much  mingled  with  us,  as  encamped  among  us.  And  it  is  more 
lamentable,  that  the  apathy  which  prevails  in  a  time  of  general 
prosperity  produces,  among  a  great  majority  of  the  people,  a 
disregard  to  the  efforts  and  objects  of  this  well-trained  and 
effective  corps.  But,  Gentlemen,  the  principle  is  vicious ;  it  is 
destructive  and  ruinous ;  and  whether  it  produces  its  work  of 
disunion  to-day  or  to-morrow,  it  must  produce  it  in  the  end.  It 
must  destroy  the  balance  of  the  government,  and  so  destroy  the 
.  government  itself.  The  government  of  the  United  States  con 
trols  the  army,  the  navy,  the  custom-house,  the  post-office,  the 
land-offices,  and  other  great  sources  of  patronage.  What  have 
the  States  to  oppose  to  ah1  this  ?  And  if  the  States  shall  see  all 
this  patronage,  if  they  shall  see  every  officer  under  this  govern 
ment,  in  all  its  ramifications,  united  with  every  other  officer,  and 
ah1  acting  steadily  in  a  design  to  produce  political  effect,  even  in 
State  governments,  is  it  possible  not  to  perceive  that  they  will, 
before  long,  regard  the  whole  government  of  the  Union  with 
distrust  and  jealousy,  and  finally  with  fear  and  hatred? 

Among  other  evils,  it  is  the  tendency  of  this  system  to  push 
party  feelings  and  party  spirit  to  their  utmost  excess.  It  in 
volves  not  only  opinions  and  principles,  but  the  pursuits  of  Life 
and  the  means  of  living,  in  the  contests  of  party.  The  execu 
tive  himself  becomes  but  the  mere  point  of  concentration  of 
party  power;  and  when  executive  power  is  exercised  or  is 
claimed  for  the  supposed  benefit  of  party,  party  will  approve  and 
justify  it.  When  did  heated  and  exasperated  party  ever  com 
plain  of  its  leaders  for  seizing  on  new  degrees  of  power  ? 

This  system  of  government  has  been  openly  avowed.  Offices 
of  trust  are  declared,  from  high  places,  to  be  the  regular  spoils 
of  party  victory;  and  ah1  that  is  furnished  out  of  the  public 
purse,  as  a  reward  for  labor  in  the  public  service,  becomes  thus 
a  boon,  offered  to  personal  devotion  and  partisan  service.  The 
uncontrolled  power  of  removal  is  the  spring  which  moves  all 
this  machinery ;  and  I  verily  believe  the  government  is,  and  will 
be,  in  serious  danger,  till  some  check  is  placed  on  that  power. 
To  combine  and  consolidate  a  great  party  by  the  influence  of 
personal  hopes,  to  govern  by  the  patronage  of  office,  to  exercise 
the  power  of  removal  at  pleasure,  in  order  to  render  that  patron 
age  effectual,  —  this  seems  to  be  the  sum  and  substance  of  the 
political  systems  of  the  times.  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  the  germ 
of  this  system  had  its  first  being  in  the  Senate. 


334  PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE. 

The  policy  began  in  the  last  year  of  Mr.  Adams's  administra 
tion,  when  nominations  made  by  him  to  fill  vacancies  occurring 
by  death  or  resignation  were  postponed,  by  a  vote  of  the 
majority  of  the  Senate,  to  a  period  beyond  the  ensuing  4th 
of  March  ;  and  this  was  done  with  no  other  view  than  that  of 
giving  the  patronage  of  these  appointments  to  the  incoming 
President.  The  nomination  of  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
among  others,  was  thus  disposed  of.  The  regular  action  of  the 
government  was,  in  this  manner,  deranged,  and  undue  and  un 
justly  obtained  patronage  came  to  be  received  as  among  the 
ordinary  means  of  government.  Some  of  the  gentlemen  who 
concurred  in  this  vote  have  since,  probably,  seen  occasion  to 
regret  it.  But  they  thereby  let  loose  the  lion  of  executive  pre 
rogative,  and  they  have  not  yet  found  out  how  they  can  drive  it 
back  again  to  its  cage.  The  debates  in  the  Senate  on  these 
questions,  in  the  session  of  1828-29,  are  not  public;  but  I 
take  this  occasion  to  say,  that  the  minority  of  the  Senate,  as  it 
was  then  constituted,  including,  among  others,  myself  and  col 
league,  contended  against  this  innovation  upon  the  Constitution, 
for  days  and  for  weeks ;  but  we  contended  in  vain. 

The  doctrine  of  patronage  thus  got  a  foothold  in  the  govern 
ment.  A  general  removal  from  office  followed,  exciting,  at  first, 
no  small  share  of  public  attention ;  but  every  exercise  of  the 
power  rendered  its  exercise  in  the  next  case  still  easier,  till  re 
moval  at  will  has  become  the  actual  system  on  which  the  gov 
ernment  is  administered. 

It  is  hardly  a  fit  occasion,  Gentlemen,  to  go  into  the  history 
of  this  power  of  removal.  It  was  declared  to  exist  in  the  days 
of  Washington,  by  a  very  small  majority  in  each  house  of  Con 
gress.  It  has  been  considered  as  existing  to  the  present  time. 
But  no  man  expected  it  to  be  used  as  a  mere  arbitrary  power ; 
and  those  who  maintained  its  existence  declared,  nevertheless, 
that  it  would  justly  become  matter  of  impeachment,  if  it  should 
be  used  for  purposes  such  as  those  to  which  the  most  blind 
among  us  must  admit  they  have  recently  seen  it  habitually  ap 
plied.  I  have  the  highest  respect  for  those  who  originally  con 
curred  in  this  construction  of  the  Constitution.  But,  as  discreet 
men  of  the  day  were  divided  on  the  question,  as  Madison  and 
other  distinguished  names  were  on  one  side,  and  Gerry  and 
other  distinguished  names  on  the  other,  one  may  now  differ 
from  either,  without  incurring  the  imputation  of  arrogance,  since 


PRESENTATION  OF  A  VASE.  335 

he  must  differ  from  some  of  them.  I  confess  my  judgment 
would  have  been,  that  the  power  of  removal  did  not  belong  to 
the  President  alone ;  that  it  was  but  a  part  of  the  power  of  ap 
pointment,  since  the  power  of  appointing  one  man  to  office  im 
plies  the  power  of  vacating  that  office,  by  removing  another  out 
of  it ;  and  as  the  whole  power  of  appointment  is  granted,  not 
to  the  President  alone,  but  to  the  President  and  Senate,  the  true 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution  would  have  carried  the  power 
of  removal  into  the  same  hands.  I  have,  however,  so  recently 
expressed  my  sentiments  on  this  point  in  another  place,  that  it 
would  be  improper  to  pursue  this  line  of  observation  further. 

In  the  course  of  the  last  session,  Gentlemen,  several  bills 
passed  the  Senate,  intended  to  correct  abuses,  to  restrain  useless 
expenditure,  to  curtail  the  discretionary  authority  of  public  offi 
cers,  and  to  control  government  patronage.  The  post-office  bill, 
the  custom-house  bill,  and  the  bill  respecting  the  tenure  of  office, 
were  all  of  this  class.  None  of  them,  however,  received  the  fa 
vorable  consideration  of  the  other  house.  I  believe,  that  in  all 
these  respects  a  reform,  a  real,  honest  reform,  is  decidedly  ne 
cessary  to  the  security  of  the  Constitution;  and  while  I  con 
tinue  in  public  life,  I  shall  not  halt  in  my  endeavors  to  produce 
it.  It  is  time  to  bring  back  the  government  to  its  true  character 
as  an  agency  for  the  people.  It  is  time  to  declare  that  offices, 
created  for  the  people,  are  public  trusts,  not  private  spoils.  It  is 
time  to  bring  each  and  every  department  within  its  true  orig 
inal  limits.  It  is  time  to  assent,  on  one  hand,  to  the  just  pow 
ers  of  Congress,  in  their  full  extent,  and  to  resist,  on  the  other, 
the  progress  and  rapid  growth  of  executive  authority. 

These,  Gentlemen,  are  my  opinions.  I  have  spoken  them 
frankly,  and  without  reserve.  Under  present  circumstances,  I 
should  wish  to  avoid  any  concealment,  and  to  state  my  political 
opinions  in  their  full  length  and  breadth.  I  desire  not  to  stand 
before  the  country  as  a  man  of  no  opinions,  or  of  such  a  mix 
ture  of  opposite  opinions  that  the  result  has  no  character  at  ah1. 
On  the  contrary,  I  am  desirous  of  standing  as  one  who  is  bound 
to  his  own  consistency  by  the  frankest  avowal  of  his  sentiments, 
on  ah1  important  and  interesting  subjects.  I  am  not  partly  for 
the  Constitution,  and  partly  against  it ;  I  am  wholly  for  it,  for  it 
altogether,  for  it  as  it  is,  and  for  the  exercise,  when  occasion 
requires,  of  all  its  just  powers,  as  they  have  heretofore  been  ex 


336  PRESENTATION  OF  A    VASE. 

ercised  by  Washington,  and  the  great  men  who  have  followed 
him  in  its  administration. 

I  disdain,  altogether,  the  character  of  an  uncommitted  man. 
I  am  committed,  fully  committed ;  committed  to  the  full  extent 
of  all  that  I  am,  and  all  that  I  hope,  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
country,  to  its  love  and  reverence,  to  its  defence  and  mainte 
nance,  to  its  warm  commendation  to  every  American  heart,  and 
to  its  vindication  and  just  praise,  before  all  mankind.  And  I 
am  committed  against  every  thing  which,  in  my  j  udgment,  may 
weaken,  endanger,  or  destroy  it.  I  am  committed  against  the 
encouragement  of'  local  parties  and  local  feelings ;  I  am  com 
mitted  against  all  fostering  of  anti-national  spirit ;  I  am  com 
mitted  against  the  slightest  infringement  of  the  original  compro 
mise  on  which  the  Constitution  was  founded ;  I  am  committed 
against  any  and  every  derangement  of  the  powers  of  the  several 
departments  of  the  government,  against  any  derogation  from 
the  constitutional  authority  of  Congress,  and  especially  against 
ah1  extension  of  executive  power;  and  I  am  committed  against 
any  attempt  to  rule  the  free  people  of  this  country  by  the  power 
and  the  patronage  of  the  government  itself.  I  am  committed, 
fully  and  entirely  committed,  against  making  the  government 
the  people's  master. 

These,  Gentlemen,  are  my  opinions.  I  have  purposely  avowed 
them  with  the  utmost  frankness.  They  are  not  the  sentiments 
of  the  moment,  but  the  result  of  much  reflection,  and  of  some 
experience  in  the  affairs  of  the  country.  I  believe  them  to  be 
such  sentiments  as  are  alone  compatible  with  the  permanent 
prosperity  of  the  country,  or  the  long  continuance  of  its  union. 

And  now,  Gentlemen,  having  thus  solemnly  avowed  these 
sentiments  and  these  convictions,  if  you  should  find  me  here 
after  to  be  false  to  them,  or  to  falter  in  their  support,  1  now  con 
jure  you,  by  all  the  duty  you  owe  your  country,  by  all  your 
hopes  of  her  prosperity  and  renown,  by  all  your  love  for  the  gen 
eral  cause  of  liberty  throughout  the  world, —  I  conjure  you. 
that,  renouncing  me  as  a  recreant,  you  yourselves  go  on,  right 
on,  straightforward,  in  maintaining,  with  your  utmost  zeal  and 
with  all  your  power,  the  true  principles  of  the  best,  the  happi 
est,  the  most  glorious  Constitution  of  a  free  government,  with 
which  it  has  pleased  Providence,  in  any  age,  to  bless  any  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 


VOL.  i.  29 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 


AT  a  meeting  of  the  political  friends  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster,  held 
at  Euterpian  Hall,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  on  Tuesday  evening,  the  21sl 
of  February,  1837,  Chancellor  Kent  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Messrs. 
Hiram  Ketchum  and  Gabriel  P.  Dissosway  were  appointed  secretaries. 

The  object  of  the  meeting  having  been  explained,  the  following  reso 
lutions  were,  on  motion,  duly  seconded  and  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  meeting  has  heard  with  deep  concern  of  the  in 
tention  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster  to  resign  his  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  at  the  close  of  the  present  session  of  Congress,  or  early 
in  the  next  session. 

"  Resolved,  That  while  we  regret  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Webster,  it 
would  be  most  unreasonable  to  censure  the  exercise  of  his  right  to  seek 
repose,  after  fourteen  years  of  unremitted,  zealous,  and  highly  distin 
guished  labors  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  ;  but  we  indulge  the 
hope  that  the  nation  will,  at  no  distant  day,  again  profit  by  his  ripe  expe 
rience  as  a  statesman  and  his  extensive  knowledge  of  public  affairs,  by 
his  wisdom  in  council  and  eloquence  in  debate. 

"  Resolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  meeting  there  is  none  among 
the  living  or  the  dead  who  has  given  to  the  country  more  just  or  able  ex 
positions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  none  who  has  enforced, 
with  more  lucid  and  impassionate  eloquence,  the  necessity  and  impor 
tance  of  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  or  exhibited  more  zeal  or  ability 
in  defending  the  Constitution  from  the  foes  without  the  government,  and 
foes  within  it,  than  Daniel  Webster. 

"  Resolved,  That  there  is  no  part  of  our  widely  extended  country  more 
deeply  interested  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union  than  the  city  of  New 
York  ;  her  motto  should  be  '  Union  and  Liberty,  now  and  for  ever,  one 
and  inseparable,1  and  her  gratitude  should  be  shown  to  the  statesman 
who  first  gave  utterance  to  this  sentiment. 

"  Resolved,  That  David  B.  Ogden,  Peter  Stagg,  Jonathan  Thompson, 
James  Brown,  Philip  Hone,  Samuel  Stevens,  Robert  Smith,  Joseph 
Tucker,  Peter  Sharpe,  Egbert  Benson,  Hugh  Maxwell,  Peter  A.  Jay, 
Aaron  Clark,  Ira  B.  Wheeler,  William  W.  Todd,  Seth  Grosvenor,  Sim 
eon  Draper,  Jr.,  Wm.  Asp  in  wall,  Nathaniel  Weed,  Jonathan  Goodhue, 
Caleb  Bartow,  Hiram  Ketchum,  Gabriel  P.  Dissosway,  Henry  K.  Bogert, 
James  Kent,  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  and  John  W.  Leavitt,  Esqrs.,  be  a  com 
mittee  authorized  and  empowered  to  receive  the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster 


340  RECEPTION   AT    NEW  YORK. 

on  his  return  from  Washington,  and  make  known  to  him,  in  the  form 
of  an  address  or  otherwise,  the  sentiments  which  this  meeting,  in  com 
mon  with  the  friends  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  in  the  city, 
entertain  for  the  services  which  he  has  performed  for  the  country  ;  that 
the  committee  correspond  with  Mr.  Webster,  and  ascertain  the  time 
when  his  arrival  may  be  expected,  and  give  public  notice  of  the  same, 
together  with  the  order  of  proceedings  which  may  be  adopted  under 
these  resolutions. 

"  Resolved,  That  these  resolutions,  signed  by  the  Chairman  and  Sec 
retaries,  be  published  when  the  committee  shall  notify  the  public  of  the 
expected  arrival  of  Mr.  Webster. 

"  JAMES  KENT,  Chairman. 
"  HIRAM  KETCHUM, 


GABRIEL  P.  DISSOSWAY 


) 
,  } 


"  New  York,  March  1,  1837. 

"  SIR  :  — It  having  been  currently  reported  that  you  have  signified  your 
intention  to  resign  your  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  a  num 
ber  of  the  friends  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  in  this  city  were 
convened  on  the  evening  of  the  21st  of  last  month,  to  devise  measures 
whereby  they  might  signify  to  you  the  sentiments  which  they,  in  com 
mon  with  all  the  Whigs  in  this  city,  entertain  for  the  eminent  services 
you  have  rendered  to  the  country.  At  this  meeting,  the  Hon.  James 
Kent  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  resolutions,  a  copy  of  which  I  inclose 
you,  were  adopted,  not  only  with  entire  unanimity,  but  with  a  feeling  of 
warm  and  hearty  concurrence.  On  behalf  of  the  committee  appointed 
under  one  of  these  resolutions,  I  now  have  the  honor  to  address  you.  It 
will  be  gratifying  to  the  committee  to  learn  from  you  at  what  time  you 
expect  to  arrive  in  this  city  on  your  return  to  Massachusetts.  If  in 
formed  of  the  time  of  your  arrival,  it  will  afford  the  committee  pleasure 
to  meet  you,  and,  in  behalf  of  the  Whigs  of  New  York,  to  welcome 
you,  and  to  offer  you,  in  a  more  extended  form  than  the  resolutions 
present,  their  views  of  your  public  services.  I  am  instructed  by  the 
committee  to  say,  that,  whether  you  shall  choose  to  appear  among  us  as 
a  public  man  or  a  private  citizen,  you  will  be  warmly  greeted  by  every 
sound  friend  of  that  Constitution  for  which  you  have  been  so  distin- 

§uished  a  champion.     Should  your  resolution  to  resign  your  seat  in  the 
enate  be  relinquished,  you  will,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  im 
pose  new  obligations  upon  the  friends  of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution 
"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  D.  B.  OGDEN. 
"  Plon.  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  Washington." 


"  Washington,  March  4th,  1837. 

';  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of 
your  letter  of  the  1st  instant,  communicating  the  resolutions  adopted  at  a 
meeting  of  a  number  of  political  friends  in  New  York. 

"  The  character  of  these  resolutions,  and  the  kindness  of  the  senti 
ments  expressed  in  your  letter,  have  filled  me  with  unaffected  gratitude. 
i  feel,  at  the  same  time,  how  little  deserving  are  any  political  servi- 


RECEPTION   AT    NEW  YORK.  341 

ces  of  mine  of  such  commendation  from  such  a  source.  To  the  dis 
charge  of  the  duties  of  my  public  situation,  sometimes  both  anxious  and 
difficult,  I  have  devoted  time  and  labor  without  reserve ;  arid  have  made 
sacrifices  of  personal  and  private  convenience  not  always  unimportant. 
These,  together  with  integrity  of  purpose  and  fidelity,  constitute,  I  am 
conscious,  my  only  claim  to  the  public  regard  ;  and  for  all  these  I  find 
myself  richly  compensated  by  proofs  of  approbation  such  as  your  com 
munication  affords. 

"  My  desire  to  relinquish  my  seat  in  the  Senate  for  the  two  years  still 
remaining  of  the  term  for  which  I  was  chosen,  would  have  been  carried 
into  execution  at  the  close  of  the  present  session  of  the  Senate,  had  not 
circumstances  existed  which,  in  the  judgment  of  others,  rendered  it  ex 
pedient  to  defer  the  fulfilment  of  that  purpose  for  the  present. 

"  It  is  my  expectation  to  be  in  New  York  early  in  the  week  after 
next ;  and  it  will  give  me  pleasure  to  meet  the  political  friends  who  have 
tendered  me  this  kind  and  respectful  attention,  in  any  manner  most 
agreeable  to  them. 

"  I  pray  you  to  accept  for  yourself,  and  the  other  gentlemen  of  the 
committee,  my  highest  regard. 

"DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  To  D.  B.  OGDEN,  Esq.,  New  York." 


"  At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  appointed  under  the  above  resolu 
tion,  Philip  Hone,  Robert  Smith,  John  W.  Leavitt,  Egbert  Benson,  Ira 
B.  Wheeler,  Caleb  Bartow,  Simeon  Draper,  Jr.,  and  Wm.  S.  John 
son,  Esqrs.,  were  appointed  a  sub-committee  to  make  arrangements  for 
the  reception  of  Mr.  Webster.  The  committee  have  corresponded  with 
Mr.  Webster,  and  ascertained  that  he  will  leave  Philadelphia  on  the  morn 
ing  of  Wednesday  next.  He  will  be  met  by  the  committee,  and,  on 
landing  at  Whitehall,  at  about  two  o'clock  on  Wednesday  afternoon,  will 
thence  be  conducted  by  the  committee,  accompanied  by  such  other  citi 
zens  as  choose  to  join  them,  to  a  place  hereafter  to  be  designated.  In 
the  evening,  at  half  past  six  o'clock,  he  will  be  addressed  by  the  commit 
tee,  in  a  public  meeting  of  citizens,  at  Niblo's  Saloon. 

"  D.  B.  OGDEN,  Chairman. 

On  the  subsequent  day,  March  15th,  the  committee  appointed  for  that 
purpose  met  Mr.  Webster  at  Amboy,  and  accompanied  him  to  the  city, 
where  he  was  met,  on  landing,  by  a  very  numerous  assemblage  of  citi 
zens,  who  thronged  to  see  the  distinguished  Senator,  and  give  him  a  warm 
welcome  ;  after  landing,  he  was  attended  by  the  committee  and  a  numer 
ous  cavalcade  through  Broadway,  which  was  crowded  with  the  most  re 
spectable  citizens,  to  lodgings  provided  for  him  at  the  American  Hotel, 
Here  he  made  a  short  address  to  the  assembled  citizens,  and  in  the  even 
ing  was  accompanied  by  the  committee  to  Niblo's  Saloon.  One  of  the 
largest  meetings  ever  held  in  the  city  of  New  York  assembled  in  the 
Saloon,  and  at  half  past  six  o'clock  was  called  to  order  by  AARON  CLARK  ; 
DAVID  B.  OGDEN  was  called  to  the  chair  as  President  of  the  meeting ; 
29* 


342  RECEPTION  AT  NEW    YORK. 

Robert  C.  Cornell,  Jonathan  Goodhue,  Joseph  Tucker,  and  Nathaniel 
Weed  were  nominated  Vice-Presidents  ;  and  Joseph  Hoxie  and  George 
S.  Robbins,  Secretaries. 

After  the  meeting  was  organized,  PHILIP  HONE  introduced  Mr.  Web 
ster  with  a  few  appropriate  remarks,  and  he  was  received  with  the  most 
enthusiastic  greetings.  Mr.  OGDEN  then  addressed  him  as  follows  :  — 

"  On  behalf  of  a  committee,  appointed  at  a  meeting  of  a  number  of 
your  personal  and  political  friends  in  this  city,  I  have  now  the  honor  of 
addressing  you. 

"  It  has  afforded  the  committee,  and,  1  may  add,  all  your  political 
friends,  unmingled  pleasure  to  learn  that  you  have,  at  least  for  the  pres 
ent,  relinquished  the  intention  which  I  know  you  had  formed  of  resign 
ing  your  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  While  expressing  their 
feelings  upon  this  change  in  your  determination,  the  committee  cannot 
avoid  congratulating  the  countiy  that  your  public  services  are  not  yet  to 
be  lost  to  it,  and  that  the  great  champion  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the 
Union  is  still  to  continue  in  the  field  upon  which  he  has  earned  so  many 
laurels,  and  has  so  nobly  asserted  and  defended  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  people. 

"  The  effort  made  by  you,  and  the  honorable  men  with  whom  you 
have  acted  in  the  Senate,  to  resist  executive  encroachments  upon  the 
other  departments  of  the  government,  will  ever  be  remembered  with 
gratitude  by  the  friends  of  American  liberty.  That  these  efforts  were 
not  more  successful,  we  shall  long  have  reason  to  remember  and  regret. 
The  administration  of  General  Jackson  is  fortunately  at  an  end.  Its 
effects  upon  the  Constitution  and  upon  the  commercial  prosperity  of 
the  countiy  are  not  at  an  end.  Without  attempting  to  review  the  lead 
ing  measures  of  his  administration,  every  man  engaged  in  business  in 
New  York  feels,  most  sensibly,  that  his  experiment  upon  the  currency 
has  produced  the  evils  which  you  foretold  it  would  produce.  It  has 
brought  distress,  to  an  extent  never  before  experienced,  upon  the  men 
of  enterprise  and  of  small  capital,  and  has  put  all  the  primary  power  in 
the  hands  of  a  few  great  capitalists. 

"  Upon  the  Senate  our  eyes  and  our  hopes  are  fixed  ;  we  know  that 
you  and  your  political  friends  are  in  a  minority  in  that  body,  but  we 
know  that  in  that  minority  are  to  be  found  great  talents,  great  experi 
ence,  great  patriotism,  and  we  look  for  great  and  continued  exertions 
to  maintain  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  liberties  of  this  people. 
And  we  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  our  entire  confidence,  that 
whatever  men  can  do  in  a  minority  will  be  done  in  the  Senate  to  relieve 
the  country  from  the  evils  under  which  she  is  now  laboring,  and  to  save 
her  from  being  sacrificed  by  folly,  corruption,  or  usurpation. 

"  It  gives  me,  Sir,  pleasure  to  be  the  organ  of  the  committee  to  express 
to  you  their  great  respect  for  your  talents,  their  deep  sense  of  the  im 
portance  of  your  public  services,  and  their  gratification  to  learn  that  you 
will  still  continue  in  the  Senate." 

To  this  address  Mr.  WEBSTER  replied  in  the  following  speech. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN,  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  —  It  would  be  idle  in 
me  to  affect  to  be  indifferent  to  the  circumstances  under  which 
I  have  now  the  honor  of  addressing  you. 

I  find  myself  in  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  continent, 
in  the  midst  of  a  vast  assembly  of  intelligent  men,  drawn  from 
all  the  classes,  professions,  and  pursuits  of  life. 

And  you  have  been  pleased,  Gentlemen,  to  meet  me,  in  this 
imposing  manner,  and  to  offer  me  a  warm  and  cordial  welcome  to 
your  city.  I  thank  you.  I  feel  the  full  force  and  importance  of 
this  manifestation  of  your  regard.  In  the  highly-flattering  reso 
lutions  which  invited  me  here,  in  the  respectability  of  this  vast 
multitude  of  my  fellow-citizens,  and  in  the  approbation  and 
hearty  good-will  which  you  have  here  manifested,  I  feel  cause 
for  profound  and  grateful  acknowledgment. 

To  every  individual  of  this  meeting,  therefore,  I  would  now 
most  respectfully  make  that  acknowledgment ;  and  with  every 
one,  as  with  hands  joined  in  mutual  greeting,  I  reciprocate 
friendly  salutation,  respect,  and  good  wishes. 

But,  Gentlemen,  although  I  am  well  assured  of  your  personal 
regard,  I  cannot  fail  to  know,  that  the  times,  the  political  and 
commercial  condition  of  things  which  exists  among  us,  and  an 
intelligent  spirit,  awakened  to  new  activity  and  a  new  degree  of 
anxiety,  have  mainly  contributed  to  fill  these  avenues  and  crowd 
these  halls.  At  a  moment  of  difficulty,  and  of  much  alarm,  you 
come  here  as  Whigs  of  New  York,  to  meet  one  whom  you  be 
lieve  to  be  bound  to  you  by  common  principles  and  common 
sentiments,  and  pursuing,  with  you,  a  common  object.  Gentle- 

*  A  Speech  delivered  at  Niblo's  Saloon,  in  New  York,  on  the  15th  of  March, 
1837. 


344  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

men,  I  am  proud  to  admit  this  community  of  our  principles,  and 
this  identity  of  our  objects.  You  are  for  the  Constitution  of  the 
country ;  so  am  I.  You  are  for  the  Union  of  the  States ;  so  am 
I.  You  are  for  equal  laws,  for  the  equal  rights  of  all  men,  for 
constitutional  and  just  restraints  on  power,  for  the  substance  and 
not  the  shadowy  image  only  of  popular  institutions,  for  a  gov 
ernment  which  has  liberty  for  its  spirit  and  soul,  as  well  as  in  its 
forms ;  and  so  am  I.  You  feel  that  if,  in  warm  party  times,  the 
executive  power  is  in  hands  distinguished  for  boldness,  for  great 
success,  for  perseverance,  and  other  qualities  which  strike  men's 
minds  strongly,  there  is  danger  of  derangement  of  the  powers  of 
government,  danger  of  a  new  division  of  those  powers,  in  which 
the  executive  is  likely  to  obtain  the  lion's  part ;  and  danger  of  a 
state  of  things  in  which  the  more  popular  branches  of  the  gov 
ernment,  instead  of  being  guards  and  sentinels  against  any  en 
croachments  from  the  executive,  seek,  rather,  support  from  its 
patronage,  safety  against  the  complaints  of  the  people  in  its  am 
ple  and  all-protecting  favor,  and  refuge  in  its  power ;  and  so  I 
feel,  and  so  I  have  felt  for  eight  long  and  anxious  years. 

You  believe  that  a  very  efficient  and  powerful  cause  in  the 
production  of  the  evils  which  now  fall  on  the  industrious  and 
commercial  classes  of  the  community,,  is  the  derangement  of  the 
currency,  the  destruction  of  the  exchanges,  and  the  unnatural  and 
unnecessary  misplacement  of  the  specie  of  the  country,  by  unau 
thorized  and  illegal  treasury  orders.  So  do  I  believe.  I  pre 
dicted  all  this  from  the  beginning,  and  from  before  the  begin 
ning.  I  predicted  it  all,  last  spring,  when  that  was  attempted  to 
be  done  by  law  which  was  afterwards  done  by  executive  author 
ity  ;  and  from  the  moment  of  the  exercise  of  that  executive  au 
thority  to  the  present  time,  I  have  both  foreseen  and  seen  the 
regular  progress  of  things  under  it,  from  inconvenience  and  em 
barrassment,  to  pressure,  loss  of  confidence,  disorder,  and  bank 
ruptcies. 

Gentlemen,  I  mean,  on  this  occasion,  to  speak  my  senti 
ments  freely  on  the  great  topics  of  the  day.  I  have  nothing  to 
conceal,  and  shall  therefore  conceal  nothing.  In  regard  to  polit 
ical  sentiments,  purposes,  or  objects,  there  is  nothing  in  my 
heart  which  I  am  ashamed  of ;  I  shall  throw  it  all  open,  there 
fore,  to  you,  and  to  all  men.  [That  is  right,  said  some  one 
in  the  crowd;  let  us  have  it,  with  no  non-committal.]  Yes, 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  345 

my  friend,  without  non-committal  or  evasion,  without  barren 
generalities  or  empty  phrase,  without  if  or  fo//,  without  a  sin 
gle  touch,  in  all  I  say,  bearing  the  oracular  character  of  an 
Inaugural,  I  shall,  on  this  occasion,  speak  my  mind  plainly, 
freely,  and  independently,  to  men  who  are  just  as  free  to  concur 
or  not  to  concur  in  my  sentiments,  as  I  am  to  utter  them.  I 
think  you  are  entitled  to  hear  my  opinions  freely  and  frankly 
spoken ;  but  I  freely  acknowledge  that  you  are  still  more  clearly 
entitled  to  retain,  and  maintain,  your  own  opinions,  however 
they  may  differ  or  agree  with  mine. 

It  is  true,  Gentlemen,  that  I  have  contemplated  the  relinquish- 
ment  of  my  seat  in  the  Senate  for  the  residue  of  the  term,  now 
two  years,  for  which  I  was  chosen.  This  resolution  was  not 
taken  from  disgust  or  discouragement,  although  some  things 
have  certainly  happened  which  might  excite  both  those  feelings. 
But  in  popular  governments,  men  must  not  suffer  themselves  to 
be  permanently  disgusted  by  occasional  exhibitions  of  political 
harlequinism,  or  deeply  discouraged,  although  their  efforts  to 
awaken  the  people  to  what  they  deem  the  dangerous  tendency 
of  public  measures  be  not  crowned  with  immediate  success.  It 
was  altogether  from  other  causes,  and  other  considerations,  that, 
after  an  uninterrupted  service  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  years,  I  nat 
urally  desired  a  respite.  But  those  whose  opinions  I  am  bound 
to  respect  saw  objections  to  a  present  withdrawal  from  Con 
gress  ;  and  I  have  yielded  my  own  strong  desire  to  their  convic 
tions  of  what  the  public  good  requires. 

Gentlemen,  in  speaking  here  on  the  subjects  which  now  so 
much  interest  the  community,  I  wish  in  the  outset  to  disclaim 
all  personal  disrespect  towards  individuals.  He  whose  character 
and  fortune  have  exercised  such  a  decisive  influence  on  our  poli 
tics  for  eight  years,  has  now  retired  from  public  station.  I  pur 
sue  him  with  no  personal  reflections,  no  reproaches.  Between 
him  and  myself,  there  has  always  existed  a  respectful  personal 
intercourse.  Moments  have  existed,  indeed,  critical  and  decisive 
upon  the  general  success  of  his  administration,  in  which  he  has 
been  pleased  to  regard  my  aid  as  not  altogether  unimportant 
I  now  speak  of  him  respectfully,  as  a  distinguished  soldier,  as 
one  who,  in  that  character,  has  done  the  state  much  service ;  as 
a  man,  too,  of  strong  and  decided  character,  of  unsubdued  reso 
lution  and  perseverance  in  whatever  he  undertakes.  In  speak- 


346  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

ing  of  his  civil  administration,  I  speak  without  censoriousness, 
or  harsh  imputation  of  motives ;  I  wish  him  health  and  happi 
ness  in  his  retirement ;  but  I  must  still  speak  as  I  think  of  his 
public  measures,  and  of  their  general  bearing  and  tendency,  not 
only  on  the  present  interests  of  the  country,  but  also  on  the 
well-being  and  security  of  the  government  itself. 

There  are,  however,  some  topics  of  a  less  urgent  present  ap 
plication  and  importance,  upon  which  I  wish  to  say  a  few 
words,  before  I  advert  to  those  which  are  more  immediately 
connected  with  the  present  distressed  state  of  things. 

My  learned  and  highly-valued  friend  (Mr.  Ogden)  who  has 
addressed  me  in  your  behalf,  has  been  kindly  pleased  to  speak 
of  my  political  career  as  being  marked  by  a  freedom  from  local 
interests  and  prejudices,  and  a  devotion  to  liberal  and  compre 
hensive  views  of  public  policy. 

I  will  not  say  that  this  compliment  is  deserved.  I  will  only 
say,  that  I  have  earnestly  endeavored  to  deserve  it.  Gentlemen, 
the  general  government,  to  the  extent  of  its  power,  is  national. 
It  is  not  consolidated,  it  does  not  embrace  all  powers  of  govern 
ment.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  delegated,  restrained,  strictly 
limited. 

But  what  powers  it  does  possess,  it  possesses  for  the  general, 
not  for  any  partial  or  local  good.  It  extends  over  a  vast  terri 
tory,  embracing  now  six-and-twenty  States,  with  interests  va 
rious,  but  not  irreconcilable,  infinitely  diversified,  but  capable  of 
being  all  blended  into  political  harmony. 

He,  however,  who  would  produce  this  harmony  must  survey 
the  whole  field,  as  if  all  parts  were  as  interesting  to  himself  as 
they  are  to  others,  and  with  that  generous,  patriotic  feeling, 
prompter  and  better  than  the  mere  dictates  of  cool  reason, 
which  leads  him  to  embrace  the  whole  with  affectionate  regard, 
as  constituting,  altogether,  that  object  which  he  is  so  much 
bound  to  respect,  to  defend,  and  to  love,  —  his  country.  We 
have  around  us,  and  more  or  less  within  the  influence  and 
protection  of  the  general  government,  all  the  great  interests 
of  agriculture,  navigation,  commerce,  manufactures,  the  fish 
eries,  and  the  mechanic  arts.  The  duties  of  the  government, 
then,  certainly  extend  over  all  this  territory,  and  embrace  all 
Ihesc  vast  interests.  We  have  a  maritime  frontier,  a  sea-coast, 
of  many  thousand  miles ;  and  while  no  one  doubts  that  it  is 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  347 

the  duty  of  government  to  defend  this  coast  by  suitable  military 
preparations,  there  are  those  who  yet  suppose  that  the  powers 
of  government  stop  at  this  point;  and  that  as  to  works  of  peace 
and  works  of  improvement,  they  are  beyond  our  constitutional 
limits.  I  have  ever  thought  otherwise.  Congress  has  a  right, 
no  doubt,  to  declare  war,  and  to  provide  armies  and  navies ;  and 
it  has  necessarily  the  right  to  build  fortifications  and  batteries, 
to  protect  the  coast  from  the  effects  of  war.  But  Congress  has 
authority  also,  and  it  is  its  duty,  to  regulate  commerce,  and  it 
has  the  whole  power  of  collecting  duties  on  imports  and  ton 
nage.  It  must  have  ports  and  harbors,  and  dock-yards  also,  for 
its  navies.  Very  early  in  the  history  of  the  government,  it  was 
decided  by  Congress,  on  the  report  of  a  highly  respectable  com 
mittee,  that  the  transfer  by  the  States  to  Congress  of  the  power 
of  collecting  tonnage  and  other  duties,  and  the  grant  of  the  au 
thority  to  regulate  commerce,  charged  Congress,  necessarily, 
with  the  duty  of  maintaining  such  piers  and  wharves  and  light 
houses,  and  of  making  such  improvements,  as  might  have  been 
expected  to  be  done  by  the  States,  if  they  had  retained  the  usual 
means,  by  retaining  the  power  of  collecting  duties  on  imports. 
The  States,  it  was  admitted,  had  parted  with  this  power ;  and 
the  duty  of  protecting  and  facilitating  commerce  by  these  means 
had  passed,  along  with  this  power,  into  other  hands.  I  have 
never  hesitated,  therefore,  when  the  state  of  the  treasury  would 
admit,  to  vote  for  reasonable  appropriations,  for  breakwaters, 
light-houses,  piers,  harbors,  and  similar  public  works,  on  any 
part  of  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  or  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from 
Maine  to  Louisiana. 

But  how  stands  the  inland  frontier  ?  How  is  it  along  the 
vast  lakes  and  the  mighty  rivers  of  the  North  and  West  ?  Do 
our  constitutional  rights  and  duties  terminate  where  the  water 
ceases  to  be  salt  ?  or  do  they  exist,  in  full  vigor,  on  the  shores 
of  these  inland  seas  ?  I  never  could  doubt  about  this ;  and 
yet,  Gentlemen,  I  remember  even  to  have  participated  in  a  warm 
debate,  in  the  Seriate,  some  years  ago,  upon  the  constitutional 
right  of  Congress  to  make  an  appropriation  for  a  pier  in  the 
harbor  of  Buffalo.  What!  make  a  harbor  at  Buffalo,  where 
Nature  never  made  any,  and  where  therefore  it  was  never  in 
tended  any  ever  should  be  made !  Take  money  from  the  peo 
ple  to  run  out  piers  from  the  sandy  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  or 


348  RECEPTION   AT  NEW  YORK. 

deepen  the  channels  of  her  shallow  rivers !  Where  was  the  con 
stitutional  authority  for  this  ?  Where  would  such  strides  of 
power  stop?  How  long  would  the  States  have  any  power  at 
all  left,  if  their  territory  might  be  ruthlessly  invaded  for  such 
unhallowed  purposes,  or  how  long  would  the  people  have  any 
money  in  their  pockets,  if  the  government  of  the  United  States 
might  tax  them,  at  pleasure,  for  such  extravagant  projects  as 
these  ?  Piers,  wharves,  harbors,  and  breakwaters  in  the  Lakes ! 
These  arguments,  Gentlemen,  however  earnestly  put  forth  here 
tofore,  do  not  strike  us  with  great  power,  at  the  present  day,  if 
we  stand  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  and  see  hundreds  of  ves 
sels,  with  valuable  cargoes  and  thousands  of  valuable  lives, 
moving  on  its  waters,  with  few  shelters  from  the  storm,  except 
what  is  furnished  by  the  havens  created,  or  made  useful,  by  the 
aid  of  government.  These  great  lakes,  stretching  away  many 
thousands  of  miles,  not  in  a  straight  line,  but  with  turns  and 
deflections,  as  if  designed  to  reach,  by  water  communication, 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  important  points  through  a 
region  of  vast  extent,  cannot  but  arrest  the  attention  of  any  one 
who  looks  upon  the  map.  They  lie  connected,  but  variously 
placed ;  and  interspersed,  as  if  with  studied  variety  of  form  and 
direction,  over  that  part  of  the  country.  They  were  made  for 
man,  and  admirably  adapted  for  his  use  and  convenience.  Look 
ing,  Gentlemen,  over  our  whole  country,  comprehending  in  our 
survey  the  Atlantic  coast,  with  its  thick  population,  its  advanced 
agriculture,  its  extended  commerce,  its  manufactures  and  me 
chanic  arts,  its  varieties  of  communication,  its  wealth,  and  its 
general  improvements ;  and  looking,  then,  to  the  interior,  to  the 
immense  tracts  of  fresh,  fertile,  and  cheap  lands,  bounded  by  so 
many  lakes,  and  watered  by  so  many  magnificent  rivers,  let  me 
ask  if  such  a  MAP  was  ever  before  presented  to  the  eye  of  any 
statesman,  as  the  theatre  for  the  exercise  of  his  wisdom  and  pa 
triotism  ?  And  let  me  ask,  too,  if  any  man  is  fit  to  act  a  part, 
on  such  a  theatre,  who  does  not  comprehend  the  whole  of  it 
within  the  scope  of  his  policy,  and  embrace  it  all  as  his  coun 
try? 

Again,  Gentlemen,  we  are  one  in  respect  to  the  glorious  Con 
stitution  under  which  we  live.  We  are  all  united  in  the  great 
brotherhood  of  American  liberty.  Descending  from  the  same 
ancestors,  bred  in  the  same  school,  taught  in  infancy  to  imbibe 


RECEPTION   AT   NEW   YORK.  349 

the  same  general  political  sentiments,  Americans  all,  by  birth, 
education,  and  principle,  what  but  a  narrow  mind,  or  woful 
ignorance,  or  besotted  selfishness,  or  prejudice  ten  times  blinded, 
can  lead  any  of  us  to  regard  the  citizens  of  any  part  of  the 
country  as  strangers  and  aliens  ? 

The  solemn  truth,  moreover,  is  before  us,  that  a  common  po 
litical  fate  attends  us  all. 

Under  the  present  Constitution,  wisely  and  conscientiously 
administered,  all  are  safe,  happy,  and  renowned.  The  measure 
of  our  country's  fame  may  fill  all  our  breasts.  It  is  fame  enough 
for  us  ah1  to  partake  in  her  glory,  if  we  will  carry  her  character 
onward  to  its  true  destiny.  But  if  the  system  is  broken,  its 
fragments  must  fall  alike  on  all.  Not  only  the  cause  of  Ameri 
can  liberty,  but  the  grand  cause  of  liberty  throughout  the  whole 
earth,  depends,  in  a  great  measure,  on  upholding  the  Constitu 
tion  and  Union  of  these  States.  If  shattered  and  destroyed,  no 
matter  by  what  cause,  the  peculiar  and  cherished  idea  of  United 
American  Liberty  will  be  no  more  for  ever.  There  may  be  free 
states,  it  is  possible,  when  there  shall  be  separate  states.  There 
may  be  many  loose,  and  feeble,  and  hostile  confederacies,  where 
there  is  now  one  great  and  united  confederacy.  But  the  noble 
idea  of  United  American  Liberty,  of  our  liberty,  such  as  our 
fathers  established  it,  will  be  extinguished  for  ever.  Fragments 
and  shattered  columns  of  the  edifice  may  be  found  remaining ; 
and  melancholy  and  mournful  ruins  will  they  be.  The  august 
temple  itself  will  be  prostrate  in  the  dust.  Gentlemen,  the  citi 
zens  of  this  republic  cannot  sever  their  fortunes.  A  common  fate 
awaits  us.  In  the  honor  of  upholding,  or  in  the  disgrace  of  un 
dermining  the  Constitution,  we  shah1  ah1  necessarily  partake.  Let 
us  then  stand  by  the  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  by  our  country  as 
it  is,  one,  united,  and  entire ;  let  it  be  a  truth  engraven  on  our 
hearts,  let  it  be  borne  on  the  flag  under  which  we  rally,  in  every 
exigency,  that  we  have  ONE  COUNTRY,  ONE  CONSTITUTION,  ONE 
DESTINY. 

Gentlemen,  of  our  interior  administration,  the  public  lands 
constitute  a  highly  important  part.  This  is  a  subject  of  great 
interest,  and  it  ought  to  attract  much  more  attention  than  it  has 
hitherto  received,  especially  from  the  people  of  the  Atlantic 
States.  The  public  lands  are  public  property.  They  belong  to 

VOL.  i.  30 


350  RECEPTION  AT  NEW   YORK. 

the  people  of  all  the  States.  A  vast  portion  of  them  is  com 
posed  of  territories  which  were  ceded  by  individual  States 
to  the  United  States,  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war, 
and  before  the  adoption  of  the  present  Constitution.  The  his 
tory  of  these  cessions,  and  the  reasons  for  making  them,  are 
familiar  to  you.  Some  of  the  Old  Thirteen  possessed  large 
tracts  of  unsettled  lands  within  their  chartered  limits.  The 
Revolution  had  established  their  title  to  these  lands,  and  as  the 
Revolution  had  been  brought  about  by  the  common  treasure 
and  the  common  blood  of  all  the  Colonies,  it  was  thought  not 
unreasonable  that  these  unsettled  lands  should  be  transferred  to 
the  United  States,  to  pay  the  debt  created  by  the  war,  and  after 
wards  to  remain  as  a  fund  for  the  use  of  all  the  States.  This 
is  the  well-known  origin  of  the  title  possessed  by  the  United 
States  to  lands  northwest  of  the  River  Ohio. 

By  treaties  with  France  and  Spain,  Louisiana  and  Florida, 
containing  many  millions  of  acres  of  public  land,  have  been 
since  acquired.  The  cost  of  these  acquisitions  was  paid,  of 
course,  by  the  general  government,  and  was  thus  a  charge 
upon  the  whole  people.  The  public  lands,  therefore,  all  and 
singular,  are  national  property;  granted  to  the  United  States, 
purchased  by  the  United  States,  paid  for  by  all  the  people  of 
the  United  States. 

The  idea,  that,  when  a  new  State  is  created,  the  public  lands 
lying  within  her  territory  become  the  property  of  such  new  State 
in  consequence  of  her  sovereignty,  is  too  preposterous  for  seri 
ous  refutation.  Such  notions  have  heretofore  been  advanced  in 
Congress,  but  nobody  has  sustained  them.  They  were  rejected 
and  abandoned,  although  one  cannot  say  whether  they  may  not 
be  revived,  in  consequence  of  recent  propositions  which  have 
been  made  in  the  Senate.  The  new  States  are  admitted  on  ex 
press  conditions,  recognizing,  to  the  fullest  extent,  the  right  of 
the  United  States  to  the  public  lands  within  their  borders ;  and 
it  is  no  more  reasonable  to  contend  that  some  indefinite  idea  of 
State  sovereignty  overrides  all  these  stipulations,  and  makes  the 
lands  the  property  of  the  States,  against  the  provisions  and  con 
ditions  of  their  own  constitution,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  than  it  would  be,  that  a  similar  doctrine  entitled 
the  State  of  New  York  to  the  money  collected  at  the  custom 
house  in  this  city;  since  it  is  no  more  inconsistent  with  sov- 


RECEPTION    AT    NEW  YORK.  351 

ereignty  that  one  government  should  hold  lands,  for  the  purpose 
of  sale,  within  the  territory  of  another,  than  it  is  that  it  should 
lay  and  collect  taxes  and  duties  within  such  territory.  What 
ever  extravagant  pretensions  may  have  been  set  up  heretofore, 
there  was  not,  I  suppose,  an  enlightened  man  in  the  whole 
West,  who  insisted  on  any  such  right  in  the  States,  when  the 
proposition  to  cede  the  lands  to  the  States  was  made,  in  the  late 
session  of  Congress.  The  public  lands  being,  therefore  the  com 
mon  property  of  all  the  people  of  all  the  States,  I  shall  never 
consent  to  give  them  away  to  particular  States,  or  to  dispose  of 
them  otherwise  than  for  the  general  good,  and  the  general  use 
of  the  whole  country. 

I  felt  bound,  therefore,  on  the  occasion  just  alluded  to,  to 
resist  at  the  threshold  a  proposition  to  cede  the  public  lands 
to  the  States  in  which  they  lie,  on  certain  conditions.  I  very 
much  regretted  the  introduction  of  such  a  measure,  as  its  effect 
must  be,  I  fear,  only  to  agitate  what  was  well  settled,  and  to 
disturb  that  course  of  proceeding  in  regard  to  the  public  lands, 
which  forty  years  of  experience  have  shown  to  be  so  wise,  and 
so  satisfactory  in  its  operation,  both  to  the  people  of  the  old 
States  and  to  those  of  the  new. 

But,  Gentlemen,  although  the  public  lands  are  not  to  be  given 
away,  nor  ceded  to  particular  States,  a  very  liberal  policy  in 
regard  to  them  ought  certainly  to  prevail.  Such  a  policy  has 
prevailed,  and  I  have  steadily  supported  it,  and  shall  continue  to 
support  it  so  long  as  I  may  remain  in  public  life.  The  main 
object,  in  regard  to  these  lands,  is  undoubtedly  to  settle  them,  so 
fast  as  the  growth  of  our  population,  and  its  augmentation  by 
emigration,  may  enable  us  to  settle  them. 

The  lands,  therefore,  should  be  sold,  at  a  low  price ;  and,  for 
one,  I  have  never  doubted  the  right  or  expediency  of  granting 
portions  of  the  lands  themselves,  or  of  making  grants  of  money, 
for  objects  of  internal  improvement,  connected  with  them. 

I  have  always  supported  liberal  appropriations  for  the  pur 
pose  of  opening  communications  to  and  through  these  lands,  by 
common  roads,  canals,  and  railroads ;  and  where  lands  of  little 
value  have  been  long  in  market,  and,  on  account  of  their  indiffer 
ent  quality  are  not  likely  to  command  a  common  price,  I  know 
no  objection  to  a  reduction  of  price,  as  to  such  lands,  so  that  they 
may  pass  into  private  ownership.  Nor  do  I  feel  any  objections 


352  RECEPTION  AT    NEW  YORK. 

to  removing  those  restraints  which  prevent  the  States  from  taxing 
the  lands  for  five  years  after  they  are  sold.  But  while,  in  these 
and  all  other  respects,  I  am  not  only  reconciled  to  a  liberal  pol 
icy,  but  espouse  it  and  support  it,  and  have  constantly  done  so, 
I  still  hold  the  national  domain  to  be  the  general  property  of 
the  country,  confided  to  the  care  of  Congress,  and  which  Con 
gress  is  solemnly  bound  to  protect  and  preserve  for  the  common 
good. 

The  benefit  derived  from  the  public  lands,  after  all,  is,  and 
must  be,  in  the  greatest  degree,  enjoyed  by  those  who  buy  them 
and  settle  upon  them.  The  original  price  paid  to  government 
constitutes  but  a  small  part  of  their  actual  value.  Their  imme 
diate  rise  in  value,  in  the  hands  of  the  settler,  gives  him  compe 
tence.  He  exercises  a  power  of  selection  over  a  vast  region  of 
fertile  territory,  all  on  sale  at  the  same  price,  and  that  price  an 
exceedingly  low  one.  Selection  is  no  sooner  made,  cultivation 
is  no  sooner  begun,  and  the  first  furrow  turned,  than  he  already 
finds  himself  a  man  of  property.  These  are  the  advantages  of 
Western  emigrants  and  Western  settlers ;  and  they  are  such,  cer 
tainly,  as  no  country  on  earth  ever  before  afforded  to  her  citizens. 
This  opportunity  of  purchase  and  settlement,  this  certainty  of 
enhanced  value,  these  sure  means  of  immediate  competence  and 
ultimate  wealth,  —  all  these  are  the  rights  and  the  blessings  of 
the  people  of  the  West,  and  they  have  my  hearty  wishes  for  their 
full  and  perfect  enjoyment. 

I  desire  to  see  the  public  lands  cultivated  and  occupied.  I 
desire  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  West,  and  the  fullest 
development  of  its  vast  and  extraordinary  resources.  I  wish  to 
bring  it  near  to  us,  by  every  species  of  useful  communication.  I 
see,  not  without  admiration  and  amazement,  but  yet  without 
envy  or  jealousy,  States  of  recent  origin  already  containing  more 
people  than  Massachusetts.  These  people  I  know  to  be  part  of 
ourselves ;  they  have  proceeded  from  the  midst  of  us,  and  we 
may  trust  that  they  are  not  likely  to  separate  themselves,  in  in 
terest  or  in  feeling,  from  their  kindred,  whom  they  have  left  on 
the  farms  and  around  the  hearths  of  their  common  fathers. 

A  liberal  policy,  a  sympathy  with  its  interests,  an  enlightened 
and  generous  feeling  of  participation  in  its  prosperity,  are  due  to 
the  West,  and  will  be  met,  I  doubt  not,  by  a  return  of  senti 
ments  equally  cordial  and  equally  patriotic. 


RECEPTION    AT    NEW  YORK.  353 

Gentlemen,  the  general  question  of  revenue  is  very  much  con 
nected  with  this  subject  of  the  public  lands,  and  I  will  therefore, 
in  a  very  few  words,  express  my  views  on  that  point. 

The  revenue  involves  not  only  the  supply  of  the  treasury  with 
money,  but  the  question  of  protection  to  manufactures.  On 
these  connected  subjects,  therefore,  Gentlemen,  as  I  have  prom 
ised  to  keep  nothing  back,  I  will  state  my  opinions  plainly,  but 
very  shortly. 

I  am  in  favor  of  such  a  revenue  as  shall  be  equal  to  all  the  just 
and  reasonable  wants  of  the  government;  and  I  am  decidedly 
opposed  to  all  collection  or  accumulation  of  revenue  beyond  this 
point.  An  extravagant  government  expenditure,  and  unneces 
sary  accumulation  in  the  treasury,  are  both,  of  all  things,  to  be 
most  studiously  avoided. 

I  am  in  favor  of  protecting  American  industry  and  labor,  not 
only  as  employed  in  large  manufactories,  but  also,  and  more 
especially,  as  employed  in  the  various  mechanic  arts,  carried  on 
by  persons  of  small  capitals,  and  living  by  the  earnings  of  then* 
own  personal  industry.  Every  city  in  the  Union,  and  none 
more  than  this,  would  feel  severely  the  consequences  of  depart 
ing  from  the  ancient  and  continued  policy  of  the  government 
respecting  this  last  branch  of  protection.  If  duties  were  to  be 
abolished  on  hats,  boots,  shoes,  and  other  articles  of  leather,  and 
on  the  articles  fabricated  of  brass,  tin,  and  iron,  and  on  ready- 
made  clothes,  carriages,  furniture,  and  many  similar  articles, 
thousands  of  persons  would  be  immediately  thrown  out  of  em 
ployment  in  this  city,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  Union.  Protec 
tion,  in  this  respect,  of  our  own  labor  against  the  cheaper,  ill-paid, 
half-fed,  and  pauper  labor  of  Europe,  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  duty 
which  the  country  owes  to  its  own  citizens.  I  am,  therefore,  de 
cidedly,  for  protecting  our  own  industry  and  our  own  labor. 

In  the  next  place,  Gentlemen,  I  am  of  opinion,  that,  with  no 
more  than  usual  skill  in  the  application  of  the  well-tried  princi 
ples  of  discriminating  and  specific  duties,  all  the  branches  of 
national  industry  may  be  protected,  without  imposing  such  du 
ties  on  imports  as  shall  overcharge  the  treasury. 

And  as  to  the  revenues  arising  from  the  sales  of  the  public 
lands,  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  ought  to  be  set  apart  for  the 
use  of  the  States.     The  States  need  the  money.     The  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  does  not  need  it.    Many  of  the  States 
30* 


354  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

have  contracted  large  debts  for  objects  of  internal  improvement 
and  others  of  them  have  important  objects  which  they  would 
wish  to  accomplish.  The  lands  were  originally  granted  for  the 
use  of  the  several  States ;  and  now  that  their  proceeds  are  not 
necessary  for  the  purposes  of  the  general  government,  I  am  of 
opinion  that  they  should  go  to  the  States,  and  to  the  people  of 
the  States,  upon  an  equal  principle.  Set  apart,  then,  the  pro 
ceeds  of  the  public  lands  for  the  use  of  the  States ;  supply  the 
treasury  from  duties  on  imports ;  apply  to  these  duties  a  just 
and  careful  discrimination,  in  favor  of  articles  produced  at  home 
by  our  own  labor,  and  thus  support,  to  a  fair  extent,  our  own 
manufactures.  These,  Gentlemen,  appear  to  me  to  be  the  gen 
eral  outlines  of  that  policy  which  the  present  condition  of  the 
country  requires  us  to  adopt. 

Gentlemen,  proposing  to  express  opinions  on  the  principal 
subjects  of  interest  at  the  present  moment,  it  is  impossible  to 
overlook  the  delicate  question  which  has  arisen  from  events 
which  have  happened  in  the  late  Mexican  province  of  Texas. 
The  independence  of  that  province  has  now  been  recognized 
by  the  government  of  the  United  States.  Congress  gave  the 
President  the  means,  to  be  used  when  he  saw  fit,  of  opening  a 
diplomatic  intercourse  with  its  government,  and  the  late  Presi 
dent  immediately  made  use  of  those  means. 

I  saw  no  objection,  under  the  circumstances,  to  voting  an 
appropriation  to  be  used  when  the  President  should  think  the 
proper  time  had  come ;  and  he  deemed,  very  promptly,  it  is  true, 
that  the  time  had  already  arrived.  Certainly,  Gentlemen,  the 
history  of  Texas  is  not  a  little  wonderful.  A  very  few  people, 
in  a  very  short  time,  have  established  a  government  for  them 
selves,  against  the  authority  of  the  parent  state ;  and  this  govern 
ment,  it  is  generally  supposed,  there  is  little  probability,  at  the 
present  moment,  of  the  parent  state  being  able  to  overturn. 

This  government  is,  in  form,  a  copy  of  our  own.  It  is  an 
American  constitution,  substantially  after  the  great  American 
model.  We  all,  therefore,  must  wish  it  success ;  and  there  is  no 
one  who  will  more  heartily  rejoice  than  I  shall,  to  see  an  inde 
pendent  community,  intelligent,  industrious,  and  friendly  to 
wards  us,  springing  up,  and  rising  into  happiness,  distinction, 
and  power,  upon  our  own  principles  of  liberty  and  government. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  355 

But  it  cannot  be  disguised,  Gentlemen,  that  a  desire,  or  an 
intention,  is  already  manifested  to  annex  Texas  to  the  United 
States.  On  a  subject  of  such  mighty  magnitude  as  this,  and  at 
a  moment  when  the  public  attention  is  drawn  to  it,  I  should 
feel  myself  wanting  in  candor,  if  I  did  not  express  my  opinion ; 
since  all  must  suppose  that,  on  such  a  question,  it  is  impossible 
that  I  should  be  without  some  opinion. 

I  say  then,  Gentlemen,  in  all  frankness,  that  I  see  objections, 
I  think  insurmountable  objections,  to  the  annexation  of  Texas 
to  the  United  States.  When  the  Constitution  was  formed,  it  is 
not  probable  that  either  its  framers  or  the  people  ever  looked  to 
the  admission  of  any  States  into  the  Union,  except  such  as  then 
already  existed,  and  such  as  should  be  formed  out  of  territories 
then  already  belonging  to  the  United  States.  Fifteen  years 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  however,  the  case  of  Lou 
isiana  arose.  Louisiana  was  obtained  by  treaty  with  France, 
who  had  recently  obtained  it  from  Spain ;  but  the  object  of  this 
acquisition,  certainly,  was  not  mere  extension  of  territory.  Oth 
er  great  political  interests  were  connected  with  it.  Spain,  while 
she  possessed  Louisiana,  had  held  the  mouths  of  the  great  rivers 
which  rise  in  the  Western  States,  and  flow  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  She  had  disputed  our  use  of  these  rivers  already,  and 
with  a  powerful  nation  in  possession  of  these  outlets  to  the  sea, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  commerce  of  all  the  West  was  in  danger 
of  perpetual  vexation.  The  command  of  these  rivers  to  the  sea 
was,  therefore,  the  great  object  aimed  at  in  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana.  But  that  acquisition  necessarily  brought  territory 
along  with  it,  and  three  States  now  exist,  formed  out  of  that  an 
cient  province. 

A  similar  policy,  and  a  similar  necessity,  though  perhaps  not 
entirely  so  urgent,  led  to  the  acquisition  of  Florida. 

Now,  no  such  necessity,  no  such  policy,  requires  the  annexa 
tion  of  Texas.  The  accession  of  Texas  to  our  territory  is  not 
necessary  to  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of  all  which  we 
already  possess.  Her  case,  therefore,  stands  upon  a  footing  en- 
entirely  different  from  that  of  Louisiana  and  Florida.  There 
being  no  necessity  for  extending  the  limits  of  the  Union  in  that 
direction,  we  ought,  I  think,  for  numerous  and  powerful  reasons, 
to  be  content  with  our  present  boundaries. 

Gentlemen,  we  all  see  that,  by  whomsoever  possessed,  Texas 


356  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

is  likely  to  be  a  slave-holding  country ;  and  I  frankly  avow  my 
entire  unwillingness  to  do  any  thing  that  shall  extend  the  slav 
ery  of  the  African  race  on  this  continent,  or  add  other  slave- 
holding  States  to  the  Union.  When  I  say  that  I  regard  slavery 
in  itself  as  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  I  only  use 
language  which  has  been  adopted  by  distinguished  men,  them 
selves  citizens  of  slave-holding  States.  I  shall  do  nothing,  there 
fore,  to  favor  or  encourage  its  further  extension.  We  have  slavery 
already  amongst  us.  The  Constitution  found  it  in  the  Union ; 
it  recognized  it,  and  gave  it  solemn  guaranties.  To  the  full  ex 
tent  of  these  guaranties  we  are  all  bound,  in  honor,  in  justice, 
and  by  the  Constitution.  All  the  stipulations  contained  in  the 
Constitution  in  favor  of  the  slave-holding  States  which  are 
already  in  the  Union  ought  to  be  fulfilled,  and,  so  far  as  depends 
on  me,  shall  be  fulfilled,  in  the  fulness  of  then-  spirit  and  to  the 
exactness  of  their  letter.  Slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  States,  is 
beyond  the  reach  of  Congress.  It  is  a  concern  of  the  States 
themselves ;  they  have  never  submitted  it  to  Congress,  and  Con 
gress  has  no  rightful  power  over  it.  I  shall  concur,  therefore,  in 
no  act,  no  measure,  no  menace,  no  indication  of  purpose,  which 
shall  interfere  or  threaten  to  interfere  with  the  exclusive  author 
ity  of  the  several  States  over  the  subject  of  slavery  as  it  exists 
within  their  respective  limits.  All  this  appears  to  me  to  be 
matter  of  plain  and  imperative  duty. 

But  when  we  come  to  speak  of  admitting  new  States,  the 
subject  assumes  an  entirely  different  aspect.  Our  rights  and 
our  duties  are  then  both  different. 

The  free  States,  and  all  the  States,  are  then  at  liberty  to  ac 
cept  or  to  reject.  When  it  is  proposed  to  bring  new  members 
into  this  political  partnership,  the  old  members  have  a  right  to 
say  on  what  terms  such  new  partners  are  to  come  in,  and  what 
they  are  to  bring  along  with  them.  In  my  opinion,  the  people 
of  the  United  States  will  not  consent  to  bring  into  the  Union  a 
new,  vastly  extensive,  and  slave-holding  country,  large  enough 
for  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  States.  In  my  opinion,  they  ought 
not  to  consent  to  it.  Indeed,  I  am  altogether  at  a  loss  to  con 
ceive  what  possible  benefit  any  part  of  this  country  can  expect  to 
derive  from  such  annexation.  Any  benefit  to  any  part  is  at  least 
doubtful  and  uncertain ;  the  objections  are  obvious,  plain,  and 
strong.  On  the  general  question  of  slavery,  a  great  portion  of 


RECEPTION   AT  NEW    YORK.  357 

the  community  is  already  strongly  excited.  The  subject  has  not 
only  attracted  attention  as  'a  question  of  politics,  but  it  has 
struck  a  far  deeper-toned  chord.  It  has  arrested  the  religious 
feeling  of  the  country;  it  has  taken  strong  hold  on  the  con 
sciences  of  men.  He  is  a  rash  man,  indeed,  and  little  conver 
sant  with  human  nature,  and  especially  has  he  a  very  erroneous 
estimate  of  the  character  of  the  people  of  this  country,  who 
supposes  that  a  feeling  of  this  kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  de 
spised.  It  will  assuredly  cause  itself  to  be  respected.  It  may 
be  reasoned  with,  it  may  be  made  willing  I  believe  it  is  entirely 
willing,  to  fulfil  all  existing  engagements  and  all  existing  duties, 
to  uphold  and  defend  the  Constitution  as  it  is  established,  with 
whatever  regrets  about  some  provisions  which  it  does  actually 
contain.  But  to  coerce  it  into  silence,  to  endeavor  to  restrain  its 
free  expression,  to  seek  to  compress  and  confine  it,  warm  as  it 
is,  and  more  heated  as  such  endeavors  would  inevitably  render 
it,  —  should  this  be  attempted,  I  know  nothing,  even  in  the 
Constitution  or  in  the  Union  itself,  which  would  not  be  endan 
gered  by  the  explosion  which  might  follow. 

I  see,  therefore,  no  political  necessity  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas  to  the  Union ;  no  advantages  to  be  derived  from  it ;  and 
objections  to  it  of  a  strong,  and,  in  my  judgment,  decisive 
character. 

I  believe  it  to  be  for  the  interest  and  happiness  of  the  whole 
Union  to  remain  as  it  is,  without  diminution  and  without  ad 
dition. 

Gentleman,  I  pass  to  other  subjects.  The  rapid  advancement 
of  the  executive  authority  is  a  topic  which  has  already  been 
alluded  to. 

I  believe  there  is  serious  cause  of  alarm  from  this  source.  I 
believe  the  power  of  the  executive  has  increased,  is  increasing, 
and  ought  now  to  be  brought  back  within  its  ancient  constitu 
tional  limits.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  motives  which 
have  led  to  those  acts,  which  I  believe  to  have  transcended  the 
boundaries  of  the  Constitution.  Good  motives  may  always  be 
assumed,  as  bad  motives  may  always  be  imputed.  Good  inten 
tions  will  always  be  pleaded  for  every  assumption  of  power; 
but  they  cannot  justify  it,  even  if  we  were  sure  that  they  existed. 
It  is  hardly  too  strong  to  say,  that  the  Constitution  was  made 


358  RECEPTION  AT  NEW    YORK. 

to  guard  the  people  against  the  dangers  of  good  intention,  real 
or  pretended.  When  bad  intentions  are  boldly  avowed,  the 
people  will  promptly  take  care  of  themselves.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  will  always  be  asked  why  they  should  resist  or  ques 
tion  that  exercise  of  power  which  is  so  fair  in  its  object,  so  plau 
sible  and  patriotic  in  appearance,  and  which  has  the  public  good 
alone  confessedly  in  view  ?  Human  beings,  we  may  be  assured, 
will  generally  exercise  power  when  they  can  get  it ;  and  they 
will  exercise  it  most  undoubtedly,  in  popular  governments,  un 
der  pretences  of  public  safety  or  high  public  interest.  It  may 
be  very  possible  that  good  intentions  do  really  sometimes  exist 
when  constitutional  restraints  are  disregarded.  There  are  men, 
in  all  ages,  who  mean  to  exercise  power  usefully ;  but  who  mean 
to  exercise  it.  They  mean  to  govern  well ;  but  they  mean  to 
govern.  They  promise  to  be  kind  masters ;  but  they  mean  to 
be  masters.  They  think  there  need  be  but  little  restraint  upon 
themselves.  Their  notion  of  the  public  interest  is  apt  to  be 
quite  closely  connected  with  their  own  exercise  of  authority. 
They  may  not,  indeed,  always  understand  their  own  motives. 
The  love  of  power  may  sink  too  deep  in  their  own  hearts 
even  for  their  own  scrutiny,  and  may  pass  with  themselves  for 
mere  patriotism  and  benevolence. 

A  character  has  been  drawn  of  a  very  eminent  citizen  of 
Massachusetts,  of  the  last  age,  which,  though  I  think  it  does  not 
entirely  belong  to  him,  yet  very  well  describes  a  certain  class  of 
public  men.  It  was  said  of  this  distinguished  son  of  Massa 
chusetts,  that  in  matters  of  politics  and  government  he  cherished 
the  most  kind  and  benevolent  feelings  towards  the  whole  earth. 
He  earnestly  desired  to  see  all  nations  well  governed ;  and  to 
bring  about  this  happy  result,  he  wished  that  the  United  States 
might  govern  the  rest  of  the  world ;  that  Massachusetts  might 
govern  the  United  States ;  that  Boston  might  govern  Massachu 
setts  ;  and  as  for  himself,  his  own  humble  ambition  would  be 
satisfied  by  governing  the  little  town  of  Boston. 

I  do  not  intend,  Gentlemen,  to  commit  so  unreasonable  a 
trespass  on  your  patience  as  to  discuss  all  those  cases  in  which 
I  think  executive  power  has  been  unreasonably  extended.  I  shall 
only  allude  to  some  of  them,  and,  as  being  earliest  in  the  order 
of  time,  and  hardly  second  to  any  other  in  importance,  I  men- 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  359 

tion  the  practice  of  removal  from  all  offices,  high  and  low,  for 
opinion's  sake,  and  on  the  avowed  ground  of  giving  patronage 
to  the  President ;  that  is  to  say,  of  giving  him  the  power  of 
influencing  men's  political  opinions  and  political  conduct,  by 
hopes  and  by  fears  addressed  directly  to  then*  pecuniary  inter 
ests.  The  great  battle  on  this  point  was  fought,  and  was  lost, 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in  the  last  session  of  Con 
gress  under  Mr.  Adams's  administration.  After  General  Jack 
son  was  known  to  be  elected,  and  before  his  term  of  office  began, 
many  important  offices  became  vacant,  by  the  usual  causes  of 
death  and  resignation.  Mr.  Adams,  of  course,  nominated  per 
sons  to  fill  these  vacant  offices.  But  a  majority  of  the  Senate 
was  composed  of  the  friends  of  General  Jackson ;  and,  instead 
of  acting  on  these  nominations,  and  filling  the  vacant  offices 
with  ordinary  promptitude,  the  nominations  were  postponed  to 
a  day  beyond  the  4th  of  March,  for  the  purpose,  openly  avowed, 
of  giving  the  patronage  of  the  appointments  to  the  President 
who  was  then  coming  into  office.  When  the  new  President 
entered  on  his  office,  he  withdrew  these  nominations,  and  sent 
in  nominations  of  his  own  friends  in  their  places.  I  was  of 
opinion  then,  and  am  of  opinion  now,  that  that  decision  of  the 
Senate  went  far  to  unfix  the  proper  balance  of  the  government. 
It  conferred  on  the  President  the  power  of  rewards  for  party 
purposes,  or  personal  purposes,  without  limit  or  control.  It 
sanctioned,  manifestly  and  plainly,  that  exercise  of  power  which 
Mr.  Madison  had  said  would  deserve  impeachment ;  and  it 
completely  defeated  one  great  object,  which  we  are  told  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  contemplated,  in  the  manner  of 
forming  the  Senate ;  that  is,  that  the  Senate  might  be  a  body 
not  changing  with  the  election  of  a  President,  and  therefore 
likely  to  be  able  to  hold  over  him  some  check  or  restraint  in 
regard  to  bringing  his  own  friends  and  partisans  into  power  with 
him,  and  thus  rewarding  their  services  to  him  at  the  public  ex 
pense. 

The  debates  in  the  Senate,  on  these  questions,  were  long  con 
tinued  and  earnest.  They  were  of  course  in  secret  session,  but 
the  opinions  of  those  members  who  opposed  this  course  have 
all  been  proved  true  by  the  result.  The  contest  was  severe  and 
ardent,  as  much  so  as  any  that  I  have  ever  partaken  in ;  and  I 
have  seen  some  service  in  that  sort  of  warfare. 


360  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

Gentlemen,  when  I  look  back  to  that  eventful  moment,  when 
I  remember  who  those  were  who  upheld  this  claim  for  execu 
tive  power,  with  so  much  zeal  and  devotion,  as  well  as  with 
such  great  and  splendid  abilities,  and  when  I  look  round  now, 
and  inquire  what  has  become  of  these  gentlemen,  where  they 
have  found  themselves  at  last,  under  the  power  which  they  thus 
helped  to  establish,  what  has  become  now  of  all  their  respect, 
trust,  confidence,  and  attachment,  how  many  of  them,  indeed, 
have  not  escaped  from  being  broken  and  crushed  under  the 
weight  of  the  wheels  of  that  engine  which  they  themselves  set 
in  motion,  I  feel  that  an  edifying  lesson  may  be  read  by  those 
who,  in  the  freshness  and  fulness  of  party  zeal,  are  ready  to  con 
fer  the  most  dangerous  power,  in  the  hope  that  they  and  their 
friends  may  bask  in  its  sunshine,  while  enemies  only  shah1  be 
withered  by  its  frown. 

I  will  not  go  into  the  mention  of  names.  I  will  give  no 
enumeration  of  persons ;  but  I  ask  you  to  turn  your  minds  back, 
and  recollect  who  the  distinguished  men  were  who  supported, 
in  the  Senate,  General  Jackson's  administration  for  the  first 
two  years ;  and  I  will  ask  you  what  you  suppose  they  think 
now  of  that  power  and  that  discretion  which  they  so  freely 
confided  to  executive  hands.  What  do  they  think  of  the  wThole 
career  of  that  administration,  the  commencement  of  which,  and 
indeed  the  existence  of  which,  owed  so  much  to  their  own  great 
exertions  ? 

In  addition  to  the  establishment  of  this  power  of  unlimited 
and  causeless  removal,  another  doctrine  has  been  put  forth,  more 
vague,  it  is  true,  but  altogether  unconstitutional,  and  tending  to 
like  dangerous  results.  In  some  loose,  indefinite,  and  unknown 
sense,  the  President  has  been  called  the  representative  of  the 
ivhole  American  people.  He  has  called  himself  so  repeatedly, 
and  been  so  denominated  by  his  friends  a  thousand  times. 
Acts,  for  which  no  specific  authority  has  been  found  either  in 
the  Constitution  or  the  laws,  have  been  justified  on  the  ground 
that  the  President  is  the  representative  of  the  whole  American 
people.  Certainly,  this  is  not  constitutional  language.  Cer 
tainly,  the  Constitution  nowhere  calls  the  President  the  univer 
sal  representative  of  the  people.  The  constitutional  representa 
tives  of  the  people  are  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  exercis^ 


RECEPTION  AT   NEW  YORK.  361 

ing  powers  of  legislation.  The  President  is  an  executive  officer, 
appointed  in  a  particular  manner,  and  clothed  with  prescribed 
and  limited  powers.  It  may  be  thought  to  be  of  no  great  con 
sequence,  that  the  President  should  call  himself,  or  that  others 
should  call  him,  the  sole  representative  of  all  the  people,  although 
he  has  no  such  appellation  or  character  in  the  Constitution. 
But,  in  these  matters,  words  are  things.  If  he  is  the  people's 
representative,  and  as  such  may  exercise  power,  without  any 
other  grant,  what  is  the  limit  to  that  power  ?  And  what  may 
not  an  unlimited  representative  of  the  people  do  ?  When  the 
Constitution  expressly  creates  representatives,  as  members  of 
Congress,  it  regulates,  defines,  and  limits  their  authority.  But 
if  the  executive  chief  magistrate,  merely  because  he  is  the  exec 
utive  chief  magistrate,  may  assume  to  himself  another  character, 
and  call  himself  the  representative  of  the  whole  people,  what  is 
to  limit  or  restrain  this  representative  power  in  his  hands  ? 

I  fear,  Gentlemen,  that  if  these  pretensions  should  be  con 
tinued  and  justified,  we  might  have  many  instances  of  summary 
political  logic,  such  as  I  once  heard  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives.  A  gentleman,  not  now  living,  wished  very  much  to  vote 
for  the  establishment  of  a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  but  he 
had  always  stoutly  denied  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress 
to  create  such  a  bank.  The  country,  however,  was  in  a  state  of 
great  financial  distress,  from  which  such  an  institution,  it  was 
hoped,  might  help  to  extricate  it ;  and  this  consideration  led  the 
worthy  member  to  review  his  opinions  with  care  and  delibera 
tion.  Happily,  on  such  careful  and  deliberate  review,  he  altered 
his  former  judgment.  He  came,  satisfactorily,  to  the  conclusion 
that  Congress  might  incorporate  a  bank.  The  argument  which 
brought  his  mind  to  this  result  was  short,  and  so  plain  and  ob 
vious,  that  he  wondered  how  he  should  so  long  have  overlooked 
it.  The  power,  he  said,  to  create  a  bank,  was  either  given  to 
Congress,  or  it  was  not  given.  Very  well.  If  it  was  given, 
Congress  of  course  could  exercise  it ;  if  it  was  not  given,  the 
people  still  retained  it,  and  in  that  case,  Congress,  as  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people,  might,  upon  an  emergency,  make  free 
to  use  it. 

Arguments  and  conclusions  in  substance  like  these,  Gentle 
men,  will  not  be  wanting,  if  men  of  great  popularity,  command 
ing  characters,  sustained  by  powerful  parties,  and  full  of  good, 

VOL.  i.  31 


362  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

intentions  towards  the  public,  may  be  permitted  to  call  them 
selves  the  universal  representatives  of  the  people. 

But,  Gentlemen,  it  is  the  currency,  the  currency  of  the  coun 
try, —  it  is  this  great  subject,  so  interesting,  so  vital,  to  all  class 
es  of  the  community,  which  has  been  destined  to  feel  the  most 
violent  assaults  of  executive  power.  The  consequences  are 
around  us  and  upon  us.  Not  unforeseen,  not  unforetold,  here 
they  come,  bringing  distress  for  the  present,  and  fear  and  alarm 
for  the  future.  If  it  be  denied  that  the  present  condition  of 
things  has  arisen  from  the  President's  interference  with  the  rev 
enue,  the  first  answer  is,  that,  when  he  did  interfere,  just  such 
consequences  were  predicted.  It  was  then  said,  and  repeated, 
and  pressed  upon  the  public  attention,  that  that  interference 
must  necessarily  produce  derangement,  embarrassment,  loss  of 
confidence,  and  commercial  distress.  I  pray  you,  Gentlemen,  to 
recur  to  the  debates  of  1832,  1833,  and  1834,  and  then  to  decide 
whose  opinions  have  proved  to  be  correct.  When  the  treasury 
experiment  was  first  announced,  who  supported,  and  who  op 
posed  it?  Who  warned  the  country  against  it?  Who  were 
they  who  endeavored  to  stay  the  violence  of  party,  to  arrest  the 
hand  of  executive  authority,  and  to  convince  the  people  that  this 
experiment  was  delusive ;  that  its  object  was  merely  to  increase 
executive  power,  and  that  its  effect,  sooner  or  later,  must  be  inju 
rious  and  ruinous  ?  Gentlemen,  it  is  fair  to  bring  the  opinions 
of  political  men  to  the  test  of  experience.  It  is  just  to  judge 
of  them  by  their  measures,  and  their  opposition  to  measures ; 
and  for  myself,  and  those  political  friends  with  whom  I  have 
acted,  on  this  subject  of  the  currency,  I  am  ready  to  abide  the 
test. 

But  before  the  subject  of  the  currency,  and  its  present  most 
embarrassing  state,  is  discussed,  I  invite  your  attention,  Gentle 
men,  to  the  history  of  executive  proceedings  connected  with  it. 
I  propose  to  state  to  you  a  series  of  facts ;  not  to  argue  upon 
them,  not  to  mystify  them,  nor  to  draw  any  unjust  inference 
from  them ;  but  merely  to  state  the  case,  in  the  plainest  manner, 
as  I  understand  it.  And  I  wish,  Gentlemen,  that,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  do  this  in  the  best  and  most  convincing  manner,  I  had 
the  ability  of  my  learned  friend,  (Mr.  Ogden,)  whom  you  have 
all  so  often  heard,  and  who  usually  states  his  case  in  such  a 
manner  that,  when  stated,  it  is  already  very  well  argued. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  363 

Let  us  see,  Gentlemen,  what  the  train  of  occurrences  has 
been  in  regard  to  our  revenue  and  finances ;  and  when  these  oc 
currences  are  stated,  I  leave  to  every  man  the  right  to  decide  for 
himself  whether  our  present  difficulties  have  or  have  not  arisen 
from  attempts  to  extend  the  executive  authority.  In  giving  this 
detail,  I  shall  be  compelled  to  speak  of  the  late  Bank  of  the 
United  States ;  but  I  shall  speak  of  it  historically  only.  My 
opinion  of  its  utility,  and  of  the  extraordinary  ability  and  suc 
cess  with  which  its  affairs  were  conducted  for  many  years  before 
the  termination  of  its  charter,  is  well  known.  I  have  often  ex 
pressed  it,  and  I  have  not  altered  it.  But  at  present  I  speak  of 
the  bank  only  as  it  makes  a  necessary  part  in  the  history  of 
events  which  I  wish  now  to  recapitulate. 

Mr.  Adams  commenced  his  administration  in  March,  1825. 
He  had  been  elected  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  began 
his  career  as  President  under  a  powerful  opposition.  From  the 
very  first  day,  he  was  warmly,  even  violently,  opposed  in  all  his 
measures ;  and  this  opposition,  as  we  all  know,  continued  with 
out  abatement,  either  in  force  or  asperity,  through  his  whole 
term  of  four  years.  Gentlemen,  I  am  not  about  to  say  whether 
this  opposition  was  well  or  ill  founded,  just  or  unjust.  I  only 
state  the  fact  as  connected  with  other  facts.  The  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  during  these  four  years  of  Mr.  Adams's  adminis 
tration,  was  in  full  operation.  It  was  performing  the  fiscal  du 
ties  enjoined  on  it  by  its  charter ;  it  had  established  numerous 
offices,  was  maintaining  a  large  circulation,  and  transacting  a 
vast  business  in  exchange.  Its  character,  conduct,  and  manner 
of  administration  were  all  well  known  to  the  whole  country. 

Now  there  are  two  or  three  things  worthy  of  especial  notice. 
One  is,  that  during  the  whole  of  this  heated  political  contro 
versy,  from  1825  to  1829,  the  party  which  was  endeavoring  to 
produce  a  change  of  administration  in  the  general  government 
brought  no  charge  of  political  interference  against  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States.  If  any  thing,  it  was  rather  a  favorite  with 
that  party  generally.  Certainly,  the  party,  as  a  party,  did  not 
ascribe  to  it  undue  attachment  to  other  parties,  or  to  the  then 
existing  administration.  Another  important  fact  is,  that,  during 
the  whole  of  the  same  period,  those  who  had  espoused  the  cause 
of  General  Jackson,  and  who  sought  to  bring  about  a  revolution 
under  his  name,  did  not  propose  the  destruction  of  the  bank,  or 


364  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

its  discontinuance,  as  one  of  the  objects  which  were  to  be  ac 
complished  by  the  intended  revolution.  They  did  not  tell  the 
country  that  the  bank  was  unconstitutional ;  they  did  not  de 
clare  it  unnecessary ;  they  did  not  propose  to  get  along  without 
it,  when  they  should  come  into  power  themselves.  If  individ 
uals  entertained  any  such  purposes,  they  kept  them  much  to 
themselves.  The  party,  as  a  party,  avowed  none  such.  A  third 
fact,  worthy  of  all  notice,  is,  that  during  this  period  there  was 
no  complaint  about  the  state  of  the  currency,  either  by  the 
country  generally  or  by  the  party  then  in  opposition. 

In  March,  1829,  General  Jackson  was  inaugurated  as  Presi 
dent.  He  came  into  power  on  professions  of  reform.  He  an 
nounced  reform  of  all  abuses  to  be  the  great  and  leading  object 
of  his  future  administration ;  and  in  his  inaugural  address  he 
pointed  out  the  main  subjects  of  this  reform.  But  the  bank  was 
not  one  of  them.  It  was  not  said  by  him  that  the  bank  was 
unconstitutional.  It  was  not  said  that  it  was  unnecessary  or 
useless.  It  was  not  said  that  it  had  failed  to  do  all  that  had 
been  hoped  or  expected  from  it  in  regard  to  the  currency. 

In  March,  1829,  then,  the  bank  stood  well,  very  well,  with  the 
new  administration.  It  was  regarded,  so  far  as  appears,  as  en 
tirely  constitutional,  free  from  political  or  party  taint,  and  highly 
useful.  It  had  as  yet  found  no  place  in  the  catalogue  of 
abuses  to  be  reformed. 

But,  Gentlemen,  nine  months  wrought  a  wonderful  change. 
New  lights  broke  forth  before  these  months  had  rolled  away ; 
and  the  President,  in  his  message  to  Congress  in  December, 
1829,  held  a  very  unaccustomed  language  and  manifested  very 
unexpected  purposes. 

Although  the  bank  had  then  five  or  six  years  of  its  charter 
unexpired,  he  yet  called  the  attention  of  Congress  very  pointed 
ly  to  the  subject,  and  declared, — 

1.  That  the  constitutionality  of  the  bank  was  well  doubted 
by  many ; 

2.  That  its  utility  or  expediency  was  also  well  doubted ; 

3.  That  all  must  admit  that  it  had  failed  to  establish  or  main 
tain  a  sound  and  uniform  currency ;  and 

4.  That  the  true  bank  for  the  use  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States  would  be  a  bank  which  should  be  founded  on  the 
revenues  and  credit  of  the  government  itself. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  365 

These  propositions  appeared  to  me,  at  the  time,  as  very  ex 
traordinary,  and  the  last  one  as  very  startling.  A  bank  founded 
on  the  revenue  and  credit  of  the  government,  and  managed  and 
administered  by  the  executive,  was  a  conception  which  I  had 
supposed  no  man  holding  the  chief  executive  power  in  his  own 
hands  would  venture  to  put  forth. 

But  the  question  now  is,  what  had  wrought  this  great  change 
of  feeling  and  of  purpose  in  regard  to  the  bank.  What  events 
had  occurred  between  March  and  December  that  should  have 
caused  the  bank,  so  constitutional,  so  useful,  so  peaceful,  and  so 
safe  an  institution,  in  the  first  of  these  months,  to  start  up  into 
the  character  of  a  monster,  and  become  so  horrid  and  dangerous, 
in  the  last  ? 

Gentlemen,  let  us  see  what  the  events  were  which  had  inter 
vened.  General  Jackson  was  elected  in  December,  1828.  His 
term  was  to  begin  in  March,  1829.  A  session  of  Congress  took 
place,  therefore,  between  his  election  and  the  commencement  of 
his  administration. 

Now,  Gentlemen,  the  truth  is,  that  during  this  session,  and  a 
little  before  the  commencement  of  the  new  administration,  a 
disposition  was  manifested  by  political  men  to  interfere  with 
the  management  of  the  bank.  Members  of  Congress  under 
took  to  nominate  or  recommend  individuals  as  directors  in  the 
branches,  or  offices,  of  the  bank.  They  were  kind  enough, 
sometimes,  to  make  out  whole  lists,  or  tickets,  and  to  send  them 
to  Philadelphia,  containing  the  names  of  those  whose  appoint 
ments  would  be  satisfactory  to  General  Jackson's  friends.  Por 
tions  of  the  correspondence  on  these  subjects  have  been  pub 
lished  in  some  of  the  voluminous  reports  and  other  documents 
connected  with  the  bank,  but  perhaps  have  not  been  generally 
heeded  or  noticed.  At  first,  the  bank  merely  declined,  as  gently 
as  possible,  complying  with  these  and  similar  requests.  But 
like  applications  began  to  show  themselves  from  many  quarters, 
and  a  very  marked  case  arose  as  early  as  June,  1829.  Certain 
members  of  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  applied  for  a 
change  in  the  presidency  of  the  branch  which  was  established 
in  that  State.  A  member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
wrote  both  to  the  president  of  the  bank  and  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  strongly  recommending  a  change,  and  in  his 
letter  to  the  Secretary  hinting  very  distinctly  at  political  con- 
31* 


366  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

siderations  as  the  ground  of  the  movement.  Other  officers  in 
the  service  of  the  government  took  an  interest  in  the  matter, 
and  urged  a  change ;  and  the  Secretary  himself  wrote  to  the 
bank,  suggesting  and  recommending  it.  The  time  had  come, 
then,  for  the  bank  to  take  its  position.  It  did  take  it ;  and,  in 
my  judgment,  if  it  had  not  acted  as  it  did  act,  not  only  would 
those  who  had  the  care  of  it  have  been  most  highly  censurable, 
but  a  claim  would  have  been  yielded  to,  entirely  inconsistent 
with  a  government  of  laws,  and  subversive  of  the  very  foun 
dations  of  republicanism. 

A  long  correspondence  between  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
and  the  president  of  the  bank  ensued.  The  directors  determined 
that  they  would  not  surrender  either  their  rights  or  their  duties 
to  the  control  or  supervision  of  the  executive  government.  They 
said  they  had  never  appointed  directors  of  their  branches  on 
political  grounds,  and  they  would  not  remove  them  on  such 
grounds.  They  had  avoided  politics.  They  had  sought  for 
men  of  business,  capacity,  fidelity,  and  experience  in  the  man 
agement  of  pecuniary  concerns.  They  owed  duties,  they  said, 
to  the  government,  which  they  meant  to  perform,  faithfully  and 
impartially,  under  all  administrations ;  and  they  owed  duties  to 
the  stockholders  of  the  bank,  which  required  them  to  disregard 
political  considerations  in  then*  appointments.  This  correspond 
ence  ran  along  into  the  fall  of  the  year,  and  finally  terminated 
in  a  stern  and  unanimous  declaration,  made  by  the  directors, 
and  transmitted  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  the  bank 
would  continue  to  be  independently  administered,  and  that  the 
directors  once  for  all  refused  to  submit  to  the  supervision  of  the 
executive  authority,  in  any  of  its  branches,  in  the  appointment 
of  local  directors  and  agents.  This  resolution  decided  the  char 
acter  of  the  future.  Hostility  towards  the  bank,  thenceforward, 
became  the  settled  policy  of  the  government ;  and  the  message 
of  December,  1829,  was  the  clear  announcement  of  that  policy. 
If  the  bank  had  appointed  those  directors,  thus  recommended 
by  members  of  Congress ;  if  it  had  submitted  all  its  appoint 
ments  to  the  supervision  of  the  treasury ;  if  it  had  removed  the 
president  of  the  New  Hampshire  branch  ;  if  it  had,  in  all  things, 
showed  itself  a  complying,  political,  party  machine,  instead  of 
an  independent  institution ;  —  if  it  had  done  this,  I  leave  all  men 
to  j.udge  whether  such  an  entire  change  of  opinion,  as  to  its 


RECEPTION   AT  NEW  YORK.  367 

constitutionality,  its  utility,  and  its  good  effects  on  the  currency, 
would  have  happened  between  March  and  December. 

From  the  moment  in  which  the  bank  asserted  its  indepen 
dence  of  treasury  control,  and  its  elevation  above  mere  party 
purposes,  down  to  the  end  of  its  charter,  and  down  even  to  the 
present  day,  it  has  been  the  subject  to  which  the  selectest 
phrases  of  party  denunciation  have  been  plentifully  applied. 

But  Congress  manifested  no  disposition  to  establish  a  treasury 
bank.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  satisfied,  and  so  was  the  country, 
most  unquestionably,  with  the  bank  then  existing.  In  the  sum 
mer  of  1832,  Congress  passed  an  act  for  continuing  the  charter 
of  the  bank,  by  strong  majorities  in  both  houses.  In  the  House 
of  Representatives,  I  think,  two  thirds  of  the  members  voted  for 
the  bill.  The  President  gave  it  his  negative ;  and  as  there  were 
not  two  thirds  of  the  Senate,  though  a  large  majority  were  for 
it,  the  bill  failed  to  become  a  law. 

But  it  was  not  enough  that  a  continuance  of  the  charter  of 
the  bank  was  thus  refused.  It  had  the  deposit  of  the  public 
money,  and  this  it  was  entitled  to  by  law,  for  the  few  years 
which  yet  remained  of  its  chartered  term.  But  this  it  was  de 
termined  it  should  not  continue  to  enjoy.  At  the  commence 
ment  of  the  session  of  1832  -  33,  a  grave  and  sober  doubt  was 
expressed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  his  official  com 
munication,  whether  the  public  moneys  were  safe  in  the  custody 
of  the  bank !  I  confess,  Gentlemen,  when  I  look  back  to  this 
suggestion,  thus  officially  made,  so  serious  in  its  import,  so  un 
just,  if  not  well  founded,  and  so  greatly  injurious  to  the  credit  of 
the  bank,  and  injurious,  indeed,  to  the  credit  of  the  whole  coun 
try,  I  cannot  but  wonder  that  any  man  of  intelligence  and  char 
acter  should  have  been  willing  to  make  it.  I  read  in  it,  how 
ever,  the  first  lines  of  another  chapter.  I  saw  an  attempt  was  now 
to  be  made  to  remove  the  deposits  of  the  public  money  from  the 
bank,  and  such  an  attempt  was  made  that  very  session.  But 
Congress  was  not  to  be  prevailed  upon  to  accomplish  the  end 
by  its  own  authority.  It  was  well  ascertained  that  neither 
house  would  consent  to  it.  The  House  of  Representatives,  in 
deed,  at  the  heel  of  the  session,  decided  against  the  proposition 
by  a  very  large  majority. 

The  legislative  authority  having  been  thus  invoked,  and  in 
voked  in  vain,  it  was  resolved  to  stretch  farther  the  long  arm  of 


368  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

executive  power,  and  by  that  arm  to  reach  and  strike  the  victim 
It  so  happened  that  I  was  in  this  city  in  May,  1833,  and  here 
learned,  from  a  very  authentic  source,  that  the  deposits  would 
be  removed  by  the  President's  order ;  and  in  June,  as  afterwards 
appeared,  that  order  was  given. 

Now  it  is  obvious,  Gentlemen,  that  thus  far  the  changes  in 
our  financial  and  fiscal  system  were  effected,  not  by  Congress, 
but  by  the  executive ;  not  by  law,  but  by  the  will  and  the  power 
of  the  President.  Congress  would  have  continued  the  charter  of 
the  bank ;  but  the  President  negatived  the  bill.  Congress  was 
of  opinion  that  the  deposits  ought  not  to  be  removed ;  but  the 
President  removed  them.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  public  moneys 
being  withdrawn  from  the  custody  which  the  law  had  provided, 
by  executive  power  alone,  that  same  power  selected  the  places 
for  their  future  keeping.  Particular  banks,  existing  under  State 
charters,  were  chosen.  With  these  especial  and  particular  ar 
rangements  were  made,  and  the  public  moneys  were  deposited 
in  their  vaults.  Henceforward  these  selected  banks  were  to 
operate  on  the  revenue  and  credit  of  the  government;  and  thus 
the  original  scheme,  promulgated  in  the  annual  message  of  De 
cember,  1829,  was  substantially  carried  into  effect.  Here  were 
banks  chosen  by  the  treasury;  all  the  arrangements  with  them 
made  by  the  treasury;  a  set  of  duties  to  be  performed  by 
them  to  the  treasury  prescribed ;  and  these  banks  were  to  hold 
the  whole  proceeds  of  the  public  revenue.  In  all  this,  Congress 
had  neither  part  nor  lot.  No  law  had  caused  the  removal  of  the 
deposits;  no  law  had  authorized  the  selection  of  deposit  State 
banks ;  no  law  had  prescribed  the  terms  on  which  the  revenues 
should  be  placed  in  such  banks.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
chapter  to  the  end,  it  was  all  executive  edict.  And  now,  Gentle 
men,  I  ask  if  it  be  not  most  remarkable,  that,  in  a  country  pro 
fessing  to  be  under  a  government  of  laws,  such  great  and  impor 
tant  changes  in  one  of  its  most  essential  and  vital  interests 
should  be  brought  about  withouit  any  change  of  law,  without 
any  enactment  of  the  legislature  whatever?  Is  such  a  power 
trusted  to  the  executive  of  any  government  in  which  the  execu 
tive  is  separated,  by  clear  and  well-defined  lines,  from  the  legis- 
ative  department  ?  The  currency  of  the  country  stands  on  the 
lame  general  ground  as  the  commerce  of  the  country.  Both  are 
Intimately  connected,  and  both  are  subjects  of  legal,  not  of  ex 
ecutive,  regulation. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  369 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the  writers  of  the  Federalist,  in 
discussing  the  powers  which  the  Constitution  conferred  on  the 
President,  made  it  matter  of  commendation,  that  it  withdraws 
this  subject  altogether  from  his  grasp.  "  He  can  prescribe  no 
rules,"  say  they,  "  concerning  the  commerce  or  currency  of  the 
country."  And  so  we  have  been  all  taught  to  think,  under  all 
former  administrations.  But  we  have  now  seen  that  the  Presi- 
'  dent,  and  the  President  alone,  does  prescribe  the  rule  concerning 
the  currency.  He  makes  it,  and  he  alters  it.  He  makes  one 
rule  for  one  branch  of  the  revenue,  and  another  rule  for  another. 
He  makes  one  rule  for  the  citizen  of  one  State,  and  another  for 
the  citizen  of  another  State.  This,  it  is  certain,  is  one  part  of 
the  treasury  order  of  July  last. 

But  at  last  Congress  interfered,  and  undertook  to  regulate  the 
deposits  of  the  public  moneys.  It  passed  the  law  of  July,  1836, 
placing  the  subject  under  legal  control,  restraining  the  power  of 
the  executive,  subjecting  the  banks  to  liabilities  and  duties,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  securing  them  against  executive  favoritism,  on 
the  other.  But  this  law  contained  another  important  provision ; 
which  was,  that  all  the  money  in  the  treasury,  beyond  what 
was  necessary  for  the  current  expenditures  of  the  government, 
should  be  deposited  with  the  States.  This  measure  passed  both 
houses  by  very  unusual  majorities,  yet  it  hardly  escaped  a  veto. 
It  obtained  only  a  cold  assent,  a  slow,  reluctant,  and  hesitating 
approval ;  and  an  early  moment  was  seized  to  array  against  it  a 
long  list  of  objections.  But  the  law  passed.  The  money  in  the 
treasury  beyond  the  sum  of  five  millions  was  to  go  to  the 
States.  It  has  so  gone,  and  the  treasury  for  the  present  is  re 
lieved  from  the  burden  of  a  surplus.  But  now  observe  other 
coincidences.  In  the  annual  message  of  December,  1835,  the 
President  quoted  the  fact  of  the  rapidly  increasing  sale  of  the 
public  lands  as  proof  of  high  national  prosperity.  He  alluded 
to  that  subject,  certainly  with  much  satisfaction,  and  apparently 
in  something  of  the  tone  of  exultation.  There  was  nothing 
said  about  monopoly,  not  a  word  about  speculation,  not  a  word 
about  over-issues  of  paper,  to  pay  for  the  lands.  All  was  pros 
perous,  all  was  full  of  evidence  of  a  wise  administration  of  gov 
ernment,  all  was  joy  and  triumph. 

But  the  idea  of  a  deposit  or  distribution  of  the  surplus  money 
with  the  people  suddenly  damped  this  effervescing  happiness* 


370  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

The  color  of  the  rose  was  gone,  and  every  thing  now  looked 
gloomy  and  black.  Now  no  more  felicitation  or  congratulation, 
on  account  of  the  rapid  sales  of  the  public  lands ;  no  more  of 
this  most  decisive  proof  of  national  prosperity  and  happiness. 
The  executive  Muse  takes  up  a  melancholy  strain.  She  sings 
of  monopolies,  of  speculation,  of  worthless  paper,  of  loss  both  of 
land  and  money,  of  the  multiplication  of  banks,  and  the  danger 
of  paper  issues ;  and  the  end  of  the  canto,  the  catastrophe,  is, 
that  lands  shall  no  longer  be  sold  but  for  gold  and  silver  alone. 
The  object  of  all  this  is  clear  enough.  It  was  to  diminish  the 
income  from  the  public  lands.  No  desire  for  such  a  diminu 
tion  had  been  manifested,  so  long  as  the  money  was  supposed 
to  be  likely  to  remain  in  the  treasury.  But  a  growing  convic 
tion  that  some  other  disposition  must  be  made  of  the  surplus, 
awakened  attention  to  the  means  of  preventing  that  surplus. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  last  session,  Gentlemen,  a  proposition 
was  brought  forward  in  Congress  for  such  an  alteration  of  the 
law  as  should  admit  payment  for  public  lands  to  be  made  in 
nothing  but  gold  and  silver.  The  mover  voted  for  his  own 
proposition ;  but  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  other  member  con 
curred  in  the  vote.  The  proposition  was  rejected  at  once  ;  but, 
as  in  other  cases,  that  which  Congress  refused  to  do,  the  execu 
tive  power  did.  Ten  days  after  Congress  adjourned,  having  had 
this  matter  before  it,  and  having  refused  to  act  upon  it  by  mak 
ing  any  alteration  in  the  existing  laws,  a  treasury  order  was 
issued,  commanding  that  very  thing  to  be  done  which  Con 
gress  had  been  requested  and  had  refused  to  do.  Just  as  in 
the  case  of  the  removal  of  the  deposits,  the  executive  power 
acted  in  this  case  also  against  the  known,  well  understood,  and 
recently  expressed  will  of  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
There  never  has  been  a  moment  when  the  legislative  will  would 
have  sanctioned  the  object  of  that  order ;  probably  never  a 
moment  in  which  any  twenty  individual  members  of  Congress 
would  have  concurred  in  it.  The  act  was  done  without  the 
assent  of  Congress,  and  against  the  well-known  opinion  of  Con 
gress.  That  act  altered  the  law  of  the  land,  or  purported  to 
alter  it,  against  the  well-known  will  of  the  law-making  power. 

For  one,  I  confess  I  see  no  authority  whatever  in  the  Consti 
tution,  or  in  any  law,  for  this  treasury  order.  Those  who  have 
undertaken  to  maintain  it  have  placed  it  on  grounds,  not  only 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  371 

different,  but  inconsistent  and  contradictory.  The  reason  which 
one  gives,  another  rejects;  one  confutes  what  another  argues 
With  one  it  is  the  joint  resolution 'of  1816  which  gave  the  au 
thority  ;  with  another,  it  is  the  law  of  1820 ;  with  a  third,  it  is 
the  general  superintending  power  of  the  President ;  and  this  last 
argument,  since  it  resolves  itself  into  mere  power,  without  stop 
ping  to  point  out  the  sources  of  that  power,  is  not  only  the 
shortest,  but  in  truth  the  most  just.  He  is  the  most  sensible,  as 
well  as  the  most  candid  reasoner,  in  my  opinion,  who  places  this 
treasury  order  on  the  ground  of  the  pleasure  of  the  executive, 
and  stops  there.  I  regard  the  joint  resolution  of  1816  as  man 
datory  ;  as  prescribing  a  legal  rule ;  as  putting  this  subject,  in 
which  all  have  so  deep  an  interest,  beyond  the  caprice,  or  the 
arbitrary  pleasure,  or  the  discretion,  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  I  believe  there  is  not  the  slightest  legal  authority, 
either  in  that  officer  or  in  the  President,  to  make  a  distinction, 
and  to  say  that  paper  may  be  received  for  debts  at  the  custom 
house,  but  that  gold  and  silver  only  shall  be  received  at  the  land 
offices.  And  now  for  the  sequel. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  last  session,  as  you  know,  Gen 
tlemen,  a  resolution  was  brought  forward  in  the  Senate  for  an 
nulling  and  abrogating  this  order,  by  Mr.  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  a 
gentleman  of  much  intelligence,  of  sound  principles,  of  vigorous 
and  energetic  character,  whose  loss  from  the  service  of  the  coun 
try  I  regard  as  a  public  misfortune.  The  Whig  members  all 
supported  this  resolution,  and  all  the  members,  I  believe,  with 
the  exception  of  some  five  or  six,  were  very  anxious  in  some 
way  to  get  rid  of  the  treasury  order.  But  Mr.  Swing's  resolu 
tion  was  too  direct.  It  was  deemed  a  pointed  and  ungracious 
attack  on  executive  policy.  It  must  therefore  be  softened,  mod 
ified,  qualified,  made  to  sound  less  harsh  to  the  ears  of  men  in 
power,  and  to  assume  a  plausible,  polished,  inoffensive  charac 
ter.  It  was  accordingly  put  into  the  plastic  hands  of  friends  of 
the  executive  to  be  moulded  and  fashioned,  so  that  it  might 
have  the  effect  of  ridding  the  country  of  the  obnoxious  order, 
and  yet  not  appear  to  question  executive  infallibility.  All  this 
did  not  answer.  The  late  President  is  not  a  man  to  be  satisfied 
with  soft  words  ;  and  he  saw  in  the  measure,  even  as  it  passed, 
the  two  houses,  a  substantial  repeal  of  the  order.  He  is  a  man 
of  boldness  and  decision ;  and  he  respects  boldness  and  decision 


372  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

in  others.  If  you  are  his  friend,  he  expects  no  flinching ;  and  if 
you  are  his  adversary,  he  respects  you  none  the  less  for  carrying 
your  opposition  to  the  full  limits  of  honorable  warfare.  Gentle 
men,  I  most  sincerely  regret  the  course  of  the  President  in  re 
gard  to  this  bill,  and  certainly. most  highly  disapprove  it.  But  I 
do  not  suffer  the  mortification  of  having  attempted  to  disguise 
and  garnish  it,  in  order  to  make  it  acceptable,  and  of  still  find 
ing  it  thrown  back  in  my  face.  All  that  was  obtained  by  this 
ingenious,  diplomatic,  and  over-courteous  mode  of  enacting  a 
law,  was  a  response  from  the  President  and  the  Attorney- Gen 
eral,  that  the  bill  in  question  was  obscure,  ill  penned,  and  not 
easy  to  be  understood.  The  bill,  therefore,  was  neither  ap 
proved  nor  negatived.  If  it  had  been  approved,  the  treasury 
order  would  have  been  annulled,  though  in  a  clumsy  and  objec 
tionable  manner.  If  it  had  been  negatived,  and  returned  to  Con 
gress,  no  doubt  it  would  have  been  passed  by  two  thirds  of  both 
nouses,  and  in  that  way  have  become  a  law,  and  abrogated  the 
#rder.  But  it  was  not  approved,  it  was  not  returned ;  it  was  re 
tained.  It  had  passed  the  Senate  in  season ;  it  had  been  sent 
to  the  House  in  season ;  but  there  it  was  suffered  to  lie  so  long 
without  being  called  up,  that  it  was  completely  in  the  power  of 
the  President  when  it  finally  passed  that  body ;  since  he  is  not 
obliged  to  return  bills  which  he  does  not  approve,  if  not  pre 
sented  to  him  ten  days  before  the  end  of  the  session.  The  bill 
was  lost,  therefore,  and  the  treasury  order  remains  in  force. 
Here  again  the  representatives  of  the  people,  in  both  houses  of 
Congress,  by  majorities  almost  unprecedented,  endeavored  to 
abolish  this  obnoxious  order.  On  hardly  any  subject,  indeed, 
has  opinion  been  so  unanimous,  either  in  or  out  of  Congress. 
Yet  the  order  remains. 

And  now,  Gentlemen,  I  ask  you,  and  I  ask  all  men  who  have 
not  voluntarily  surrendered  all  power  and  all  right  of  thinking 
for  themselves,  whether,  from  1832  to  the  present  moment,  the 
executive  authority  has  not  effectually  superseded  the  power  of 
Congress,  thwarted  the  will  of  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  even  of  the  people  themselves,  and  taken  the  whole  subject 
of  the  currency  into  its  own  grasp  ?  In  1832,  Congress  desired 
to  continue  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  a  majority  of 
the  people  desired  it  also ;  but  the  President  opposed  it,  and  his 
will  prevailed.  In  1833,  Congress  refused  to  remove  the  de 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  373 

posits;  the  President  resolved  upon  it,  however,  and  his  will 
prevailed.  Congress  has  never  been  willing  to  make  a  bank 
founded  on  the  money  and  credit  of  the  government,  and  ad 
ministered,  of  course,  by  executive  hands;  but  this  was  the 
President's  object,  and  he  attained  it,  in  a  great  measure,  by 
the  treasury  selection  of  deposit  banks.  In  this  particular,  there 
fore,  to  a  great  extent,  his  will  prevailed.  In  1836,  Congress 
refused  to  confine  the  receipts  for  public  lands  to  gold  and  silver ; 
but  the  President  willed  it,  and  his  will  prevailed.  In  1837, 
both  houses  of  Congress,  by  more  than  two  thirds,  passed  a 
bill  for  restoring  the  former  state  of  things  by  annulling  the 
treasury  order ;  but  the  President  willed,  notwithstanding,  that 
the  order  should  remain  in  force,  and  his  will  again  prevailed. 
I  repeat  the  question,  therefore,  and  I  would  put  it  earnestly  to 
every  intelligent  man,  to  every  lover  of  our  constitutional  Liberty, 
are  we  under  the  dominion  of  the  law?  or  has  the  effectual 
government  of  the  country,  at  least  in  all  that  regards  the  great 
interest  of  the  currency,  been  in  a  single  hand  ? 

Gentlemen,  I  have  done  with  the  narrative  of  events  and 
measures.  I  have  done  with  the  history  of  these  successive 
steps,  in  the  progress  of  executive  power,  towards  a  complete 
control  over  the  revenue  and  the  currency.  The  result  is  now 
all  before  us.  These  pretended  reforms,  these  extraordinary  ex 
ercises  of  power  from  an  extraordinary  zeal  for  the  good  of 
the  people,  what  have  they  brought  us  to  ? 

In  1829,  the  currency  was  declared  to  be  neither  sound  nor 
uniform ;  a  proposition,  in  my  judgment,  altogether  at  variance 
with  the  fact,  because  I  do  not  believe  there  ever  was  a  country 
of  equal  extent,  in  which  paper  formed  any  part  of  the  circula 
tion,  that  possessed  a  currency  so  sound,  so  uniform,  so  con 
venient,  and  so  perfect  in  all  respects,  as  the  currency  of  this 
country,  at  the  moment  of  the  delivery  of  that  message,  in 
1829. 

But  how  is  it  now  ?  Where  has  the  improvement  brought 
it  ?  What  has  reform  done  ?  What  has  the  great  cry  for  hard 
money  accomplished  ?  Is  the  currency  uniform  now  ?  Is  money 
in  New  Orleans  now  as  good,  or  nearly  so,  as  money  in  New 
York  ?  Are  exchanges  at  par,  or  only  at  the  same  low  rates  as 
in  1829  and  other  years  ?  Every  one  here  knows  that  all  the 

VOL.  i.  32 


374  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

benefits  of  this  experiment  are  but  injury  and  oppression;  all 
this  reform,  but  aggravated  distress. 

And  as  to  the  soundness  of  the  currency,  how  does  that  stand  ? 
Are  the  causes  of  alarm  less  now  than  in  1829  ?  Is  there  less 
bank  paper  in  circulation  ?  Is  there  less  fear  of  a  general  catas 
trophe  ?  Is  property  more  secure,  or  industry  more  certain  of 
its  reward  ?  We  all  know,  Gentlemen,  that,  during  all  this  pre 
tended  warfare  against  all  banks,  banks  have  vastly  increased. 
Millions  upon  millions  of  bank  paper  have  been  added  to  the 
circulation.  Everywhere,  and  nowhere  so  much  as  where  the 
present  administration  and  its  measures  have  been  most  zeal 
ously  supported,  banks  have  multiplied  under  State  authority, 
since  the  decree  was  made  that  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
should  be  suffered  to  expire.  Look  at  Mississippi,  Missouri, 
Louisiana,  Virginia,  and  other  States.  Do  we  not  see  that 
banking  capital  and  bank  paper  are  enormously  increasing? 
The  opposition  to  banks,  therefore,  so  much  professed,  whether 
it  be  real  or  whether  it  be  but  pretended,  has  not  restrained 
either  their  number  or  their  issues  of  paper.  Both  have  vastly 
increased. 

And  now  a  word  or  two,  Gentlemen,  upon  this  hard-money 
scheme,  and  the  fancies  and  the  delusions  to  which  it  has  given 
birth.  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  subject  of  delicacy,  and  one  which 
it  is  difficult  to  treat  with  sufficient  caution,  in  a  popular  and 
occasional  address  like  this.  I  profess  to  be  a  bullionist^  in  the 
usual  and  accepted  sense  of  that  word.  I  am  for  a  solid  specie 
basis  for  our  circulation,  and  for  specie  as  a  part  of  the  circula 
tion,  so  far  as  it  may  be  practicable  and  convenient.  I  am  for 
giving  no  value  to  paper,  merely  as  paper.  I  abhor  paper ;  that 
is  to  say,  irredeemable  paper,  paper  that  may  not  be  converted 
into  gold  or  silver  at  the  will  of  the  holder.  But  while  I  hold 
to  all  this,  I  believe,  also,  that  an  exclusive  gold  and  silver  circu 
lation  is  an  utter  impossibility  in  the  present  state  of  this  coun 
try  and  of  the  world.  We  shall  none  of  us  ever  see  it ;  and  it 
is  credulity  and  folly,  in  my  opinion,  to  act  under  any  such  hope 
or  expectation.  The  States  will  make  banks,  and  these  will 
issue  paper;  and  the  longer  the  government  of  the  United 
States  neglects  its  duty  in  regard  to  measures  for  regulating  the 
currency,  the  greater  will  be  the  amount  of  bank  paper  over 
spreading  the  country.  Of  this  I  entertain  not  a  particle  of 
doubt. 


RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK.  375 

While  I  thus  hold  to  the  absolute  and  indispensable  necessity 
of  gold  and  silver,  as  the  foundation  of  our  circulation,  I  yet 
think  nothing  more  absurd  and  preposterous,  than  unnatural 
and  strained  efforts  to  import  specie.  There  is  but  so  much 
specie  in  the  world,  and  its  amount  cannot  be  greatly  or  sud 
denly  increased.  Indeed,  there  are  reasons  for  supposing  that  its 
amount  has  recently  diminished,  by  the  quantity  used  in  manu 
factures,  and  by  the  diminished  products  of  the  mines.  The 
existing  amount  of  specie,  however,  must  support  the  paper 
circulations,  and  the  systems  of  currency,  not  of  the  United 
States  only,  but  of  other  nations  also.  One  of  its  great  uses  is 
to  pass  from  country  to  country,  for  the  purpose  of  settling 
occasional  balances  in  commercial  transactions.  It  always 
finds  its  way,  naturally  and  easily,  to  places  where  it  is  needed 
for  these  uses.  But  to  take  extraordinary  pains  to  bring  it 
where  the  course  of  trade  does  not  bring  it,  where  the  state  of 
debt  and  credit  does  not  require  it  to  be,  and  then  to  endeavor, 
by  unnecessary  and  injurious  regulations,  treasury  orders,  accu 
mulations  at  the  mint,  and  other  contrivances,  there  to  retain  it, 
is  a  course  of  policy  bordering,  as  it  appears  to  me,  on  political 
insanity.  It  is  boasted  that  we  have  seventy-five  or  eighty  mil 
lions  of  specie  now  in  the  country.  But  what  more  senseless, 
what  more  absurd,  than  this  boast,  if  there  is  a  balance  against 
us  abroad,  of  which  payment  is  desired  sooner  than  remittances 
of  our  own  products  are  likely  to  make  that  payment  ?  What 
more  miserable  than  to  boast  of  having  that  which  is  not  ours, 
which  belongs  to  others,  and  which  the  convenience  of  others, 
and  our  own  convenience  also,  require  that  they  should  possess? 
If  Boston  were  in  debt  to  New  York,  would  it  be  wise  in  Bos 
ton,  instead  of  paying  its  debt,  to  contrive  all  possible  means  of 
obtaining  specie  from  the  New  York  banks,  and  hoarding  it  a* 
home  ?  And  yet  this,  as  I  think,  would  be  precisely  as  sensible 
as  the  course  which  the  government  of  the  United  States  at 
present  pursues.  We  have,  beyond  all  doubt,  a  great  amount 
of  specie  in  the  country,  but  it  does  not  answer  its  accustomed 
end,  it  does  not  perform  its  proper  duty.  It  neither  goes  abroad 
to  settle  balances  against  us,  and  thereby  quiet  those  who  have 
demands  upon  us ;  nor  is  it  so  disposed  of  at  home  as  to  sus 
tain  the  circulation  to  the  extent  which  the  circumstances  of 
the  times  require.  A  great  part  of  it  is  in  the  Western  banks, 


376  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

in  the  land  offices,  on  the  roads  through  the  wilderness,  on  the 
passages  over  the  Lakes,  from  the  land  offices  to  the  deposit 
banks,  and  from  the  deposit  banks  back  to  the  land  offices.  An 
other  portion  is  in  the  hands  of  buyers  and  sellers  of  specie ;  of 
men  in  the  West,  who  sell  land-office  money  to  the  new  settlers 
for  a  high  premium.  Another  portion,  again,  is  kept  in  private 
hands,  to  be  used  when  circumstances  shall  tempt  to  the  pur 
chase  of  lands.  And,  Gentlemen,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  so 
loud  has  been  the  cry  about  hard  money,  and  so  sweeping  the 
denunciation  of  all  paper,  that  private  holding,  or  hoarding,  pre 
vails  to  some  extent  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  These 
eighty  millions  of  specie,  therefore,  really  do  us  little  good.  We 
are  weaker  in  our  circulation,  I  have  no  doubt,  our  credit  is  fee 
bler,  money  is  scarcer  with  us,  at  this  moment,  than  if  twenty 
millions  of  this  specie  were  shipped  to  Europe,  and  general  con 
fidence  thereby  restored. 

Gentlemen,  I  will  not  say  that  some  degree  of  pressure  might 
not  have  come  upon  us,  if  the  treasury  order  had  not  issued.  I 
will  not  say  that  there  has  not  been  over-trading,  and  over 
production,  and  a  too  great  expansion  of  bank  circulation.  This 
may  all  be  so,  and  the  last-mentioned  evil,  it  was  easy  to  fore 
see,  was  likely  to  happen  when  the  United  States  discontinued 
their  own  bank.  But  what  I  do  say  is,  that,  acting  upon  the 
state  of  things  as  it  actually  existed,  and  is  now  actually  exist 
ing,  the  treasury  order  has  been,  and  now  is,  productive  of  great 
distress.  It  acts  upon  a  state  of  things  which  gives  extraordi 
nary  force  to  its  stroke,  and  extraordinary  point  to  its  sting.  It 
arrests  specie,  when  the  free  use  and  circulation  of  specie  are 
most  important ;  it  cripples  the  banks,  at  a  moment  when  the 
banks  more  than  ever  need  all  their  means.  It  makes  the  mer 
chant  unable  to  remit,  when  remittance  is  necessary  for  his  own 
credit,  and  for  the  general  adjustment  of  commercial  balances. 
I  am  not  now  discussing  the  general  question,  whether  prices 
must  not  come  down,  and  adjust  themselves  anew  to  the  amount 
of  bullion  existing  in  Europe  and  America.  I  am  dealing  only 
with  the  measures  of  our  own  government  on  the  subject  of 
the  currency,  and  I  insist  that  these  measures  have  been  most 
unfortunate,  and  most  ruinous  in  their  effects  on  the  ordinary 
means  of  our  circulation  at  home,  and  on  our  ability  of  remit 
tance  abroad. 


RECEPTION   AT    NEW  YORK.  377 

Their  effects,  too,  on  domestic  exchanges,  by  deranging  and 
misplacing  the  specie  which  is  in  the  country,  are  most  disas 
trous.  Let  him  who  rhas  lent  an  ear  to  all  these  promises  of  a 
more  uniform  currency  see  how  he  can  now  sell  his  draft  on 
New  Orleans  or  Mobile.  Let  the  Northern  manufacturers  and 
mechanics,  those  who  have  sold  the  products  of  their  labor  to  the 
South,  and  heretofore  realized  the  prices  with  little  loss  of  ex 
change,  let  them  try  present  facilities.  Let  them  see  what 
reform  of  the  currency  has  done  for  them.  Let  them  inquire 
whether,  in  this  respect,  their  condition  is  better  or  worse  than  it 
was  five  or  six  years  ago. 

Gentlemen,  I  hold  this  disturbance  of  the  measure  of  value,  and 
the  means  of  payment  and  exchange,  this  derangement,  and,  if 
I  may  so  say,  this  violation  of  the  currency,  to  be  one  of  the 
most  unpardonable  of  political  faults.  He  who  tampers  with 
the  currency  robs  labor  of  its  bread.  He  panders,  indeed,  to 
greedy  capital,  which  is  keen-sighted,  and  may  shift  for  itself; 
but  he  beggars  labor,  which  is  honest,  unsuspecting,  and  too 
busy  with  the  present  to  calculate  for  the  future.  The  prosper 
ity  of  the  working  classes  lives,  moves,  and  has  its  being  in  es 
tablished  credit,  and  a  steady  medium  of  payment.  All  sudden 
changes  destroy  it.  Honest  industry  never  comes  in  for  any 
part  of  the  spoils  in  that  scramble  which  takes  place  when  the 
currency  of  a  country  is  disordered.  Did  wild  schemes  and  proj 
ects  ever  benefit  the  industrious  ?  Did  irredeemable  bank  paper 
ever  enrich  the  laborious  ?  Did  violent  fluctuations  ever  do  good 
to  him  who  depends  on  his  daily  labor  for  his  daily  bread  ? 
Certainly  never.  All  these  things  may  gratify  greediness  for 
sudden  gain,  or  the  rashness  of  daring  speculation ;  but  they  can 
bring  nothing  but  injury  and  distress  to  the  homes  of  patient  in 
dustry  and  honest  labor.  "Who  are  they  that  profit  by  the  pres 
ent  state  of  things?  They  are  not  the  many,  but  the  few. 
They  are  speculators,  brokers,  dealers  in  money,  and  lenders  of 
money  at  exorbitant  interest.  Small  capitalists  are  crushed,  and, 
their  means  being  dispersed,  as  usual,  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  this  miserable  policy  having  destroyed  exchanges, 
they  have  no  longer  either  money  or  credit.  And  all  classes  of  la 
bor  partake,  and  must  partake,  in  the  same  calamity.  And  what 
consolation  for  all  this  is  it,  that  the  public  lands  are  paid  for  in 
specie  ?  that,  whatever  embarrassment  and  distress  pervade  the 
32* 


378  RECEPTION   AT    NEW    YORK. 

country,  the  Western  wilderness  is  thickly  sprinkled  over  with 
eagles  and  dollars?  that  gold  goes  weekly  from  Milwaukie 
and  Chicago  to  Detroit,  and  back  again  from  Detroit  to  Mil 
waukie  and  Chicago,  and  performs  similar  feats  of  egress  and 
regress  in  many  other  instances,  in  the  Western  States  ?  It  is 
remarkable  enough,  that,  with  all  this  sacrifice  of  general  conven 
ience,  with  all  this  sky-rending  clamor  for  government  payments 
in  specie,  government,  after  all,  never  gets  a  dollar.  So  far  as  1 
know,  the  United  States  have  not  now  a  single  specie  dollar  in 
the  world.  If  they  have,  where  is  it  ?  The  gold  and  silver  col 
lected  at  the  land-offices  is  sent  to  the  deposit  banks ;  it  is 
there  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  government,  and  thereby  be 
comes  the  property  of  the  bank.  The  whole  revenue  of  the  gov 
ernment,  therefore,  after  all,  consists  in  mere  bank  credits ;  that 
very  sort  of  security  which  the  friends  of  the  administration 
have  so  much  denounced. 

Remember,  Gentlemen,  in  the  midst  of  this  deafening  din 
against  all  banks,  that,  if  it  shall  create  such  a  panic  as  shall 
shut  up  the  banks,  it  will  shut  up  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States  also. 

Gentlemen,  I  would  not  willingly  be  a  prophet  of  ill.  I  most 
devoutly  wish  to  see  a  better  state  of  things  ;  and  I  believe  the 
repeal  of  the  treasury  order  would  tend  very  much  to  bring 
about  that  better  state  of  things.  And  I  am  of  opinion,  that, 
sooner  or  later,  the  order  will  be  repealed.  I  think  it  must  be  re 
pealed.  I  think  the  East,  West,  North,  and  South  will  demand 
its  repeal.  But,  Gentlemen,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  say,  that,  if  I 
should  be  disappointed  in  this  expectation,  I  see  no  immediate 
relief  to  the  distresses  of  the  community.  I  greatly  fear,  even, 
that  the  worst  is  not  yet.  *  I  look  for  severer  distresses ;  for  ex 
treme  difficulties  in  exchange,  for  far  greater  inconveniences  in 
remittance,  and  for  a  sudden  fall  in  prices.  Our  condition  is  one 
which  is  not  to  be  tampered  with,  and  the  repeal  of  the  treasury 


*  On  the  10th  of  June  following  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  all  the  banks  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  by  common  consent,  suspended  the  payment  of  their  notes  in 
specie.  On  the  next  day,  the  same  step  was  taken  by  the  banks  of  Boston  and  the 
vicinity,  and  the  example  was  followed  by  all  the  banks  south  of  New  York,  as 
they  received  intelligence  of  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  in  that  city.  On 
the  15th  of  June,  (just  three  months  from  the  day  this  speech  was  delivered,)  Pres 
ident  Van  Buren  issued  his  proclamation  calling  an  extra  session  of  Congress  for 
the  first  Monday  of  September. 


RECEPTION  AT   NEW  YORK.  379 

order,  being  something  which  government  can  do,  and  which 
will  do  good,  the  public  voice  is  right  in  demanding  that  repeal. 
It  is  true,  if  repealed  now,  the  relief  will  come  late.  Neverthe 
less  its  repeal  or  abrogation  is  a  thing  to  be  insisted  on,  and  pur 
sued,  till  it  shall  be  accomplished.  This  executive  control  over 
the  currency,  this  power  of  discriminating,  by  treasury  order,  be 
tween  one  man's  debt  and  another  man's  debt,  is  a  thing  not  to 
be  endured  in  a  free  country;  and  it  should  be  the  constant^  per 
sisting  demand  of  all  true  Whigs,  "  Rescind  the  illegal  treas 
ury  order,  restore  the  rule  of  the  law,  place  all  branches  of  the 
revenue  on  the  same  grounds,  make  men's  rights  equal,  and 
leave  the  government  of  the  country  where  the  Constitution 
leaves  it,  in  the  hands  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  in 
Congress."  This  point  should  never  be  surrendered  or  compro 
mised.  Whatever  is  established,  let  it  be  equal,  and  let  it  be 
legal.  Let  men  know,  to-day,  what  money  may  be  required  of 
them  to-morrow.  Let  the  rule  be  open  and  public,  on  the  pages 
of  the  statute-book,  not  a  secret,  in  the  executive  breast. 

Gentlemen,  in  the  session  which  has  now  just  closed,  I  have 
done  my  utmost  to  effect  a  direct  and  immediate  repeal  of  the 
treasury  order. 

I  have  voted  for  a  bill  anticipating  the  payment  of  the  French 
and  Neapolitan  indemnities  by  an  advance  from  the  treasury. 

I  have  voted  with  great  satisfaction  for  the  restoration  of  du 
ties  on  goods  destroyed  in  the  great  conflagration  in  this  city. 

I  have  voted  for  a  deposit  with  the  States  of  the  surplus 
which  may  be  in  the  treasury  at  the  end  of  the  year.  All  these 
measures  have  failed;  and  it  is  for  you,  and  for  our  fellow- 
citizens  throughout  the  country,  to  decide  whether  the  public  in 
terest  would,  or  would  not,  have  been  promoted  by  their  success. 

But  I  find,  Gentlemen,  that  I  am  committing  an  unpardon 
able  trespass  on  your  indulgent  patience.  I  will  pursue  these 
remarks  no  further.  And  yet  I  cannot  persuade  myself  to  take 
leave  of  you  without  reminding  you,  with  the  utmost  deference 
and  respect,  of  the  important  part  assigned  to  you  in  the  politi 
cal  concerns  of  your  country,  and  of  the  great  influence  of  your 
opinions,  your  example,  and  your  efforts  upon  the  general  pros 
perity  and  happiness. 

Whigs  of  New  York!  Patriotic  citizens  of  this  great  me 
tropolis  !  Lovers  of  constitutional  liberty,  bound  by  interest  and 
by  affection  to  the  institutions  of  your  country,  Americans  in 


380  RECEPTION  AT  NEW  YORK. 

heart  and  in  principle !  —  you  are  ready,  I  am  sure,  to  fulfil  all 
the  duties  imposed  upon  you  by  your  situation,  and  demanded 
of  you  by  your  country.  You  have  a  central  position ;  your 
city  is  the  point  from  which  intelligence  emanates,  and  spreads 
in  all  directions  over  the  whole  land.  Every  hour  carries  reports 
of  your  sentiments  and  opinions  to  the  verge  of  the  Union. 
You  cannot  escape  the  responsibility  which  circumstances  have 
thrown  upon  you.  You  must  live  and  act,  on  a  broad  and  con 
spicuous  theatre,  either  for  good  or  for  evil  to  your  country. 
You  cannot  shrink  from  your  public  duties;  you  cannot  ob 
scure  yourselves,  nor  bury  your  talent.  In  the  common  wel 
fare,  in  the  common  prosperity,  in  the  common  glory  of  Ameri 
cans,  you  have  a  stake  of  value  not  to  be  calculated.  You  have 
an  interest  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  of  the  Constitution, 
and  of  the  true  principles  of  the  government,  which  no  man 
can  estimate.  You  act  for  yourselves,  and  for  the  generations 
that  are  to  come  after  you ;  and  those  who  ages  hence  shall  bear 
your  names,  and  partake  your  blood,  will  feel,  in  their  political 
and  social  condition,  the  consequences  of  the  manner  in  which 
you  discharge  your  political  duties. 

Having  fulfilled,  then,  on  your  part  and  011  mine,  though  feebly 
and  imperfectly  on  mine,  the  offices  of  kindness  and  mutual 
regard  required  by  this  occasion,  shall  we  not  use  it  to  a  higher 
and  nobler  purpose  ?  Shall  we  not,  by  this  friendly  meeting, 
refresh  our  patriotism,  rekindle  our  love  of  constitutional  liberty, 
and  strengthen  our  resolutions  of  public  duty  ?  Shall  we  not, 
in  aU  honesty  arid  sincerity,  with  pure  and  disinterested  love  of 
country,  as  Americans,  looking  back  to  the  renown  of  our  ances 
tors,  and  looking  forward  to  the  interests  of  our  posterity,  here, 
to-night,  pledge  our  mutual  faith  to  hold  on  to  the  last  to  our 
professed  principles,  to  the  doctrines  of  true  liberty,  and  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  country,  let  who  wih1  prove  true,  or  who  will 
prove  recreant  ?  Whigs  of  New  York !  I  meet  you  in  advance, 
and  give  you  my  pledge  for  my  own  performance  of  these 
duties,  without  qualification  and  without  reserve.  Whether  in 
public  life  or  in  private  life,  in  the  Capitol  or  at  home,  I  mean 
never  to  desert  them.  I  mean  never  to  forget  that  I  have  a 
country,  to  which  I  am  bound  by  a  thousand  ties ;  and  the  stone 
which  is  to  lie  on  the  ground  that  shall  cover  me,  shall  not  bear 
the  name  of  a  son  ungrateful  to  his  native  land. 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING.4 


THE  following  toast  having  been  proposed,  — "  Our  distinguished 
guest,  —  his  manly  and  untiring,  though  unsuccessful,  efforts  to  sustain 
the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  against  the  encroach 
ments  of  executive  power,  and  to  avert  the  catastrophe  that  now  im 
pends  over  the  country,  have  given  him  a  new  claim  to  the  gratitude  of 
his  countrymen,  and  added  a  new  lustre  to  that  fame  which  was  already 
imperishably  identified  with  the  history  of  our  institutions,"  —  Mr.  Web 
ster  rose  and  responded,  in  substance,  as  follows. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  —  1  cannot  be  indif 
ferent  to  the  manifestations  of  regard  with  which  I  have  been 
greeted  by  you,  nor  can  I  suffer  any  show  of  delicacy  to  prevent 
me  from  expressing  my  thanks  for  your  kindness. 

I  travel,  Gentlemen,  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  the  country, 
and  of  seeing  what  constitutes  the  important  part  of  every 
country,  the  people.  I  find  everywhere  much  to  excite,  and 
much  to  gratify  admiration;  and  the  pleasure  I  experience  is 
only  diminished  by  remembering  the  unparalleled  state  of  dis 
tress  which  I  have  left  behind  me,  and  by  the  apprehension, 
rather  than  the  feeling,  of  severe  evils,  which  I  find  to  exist 
wherever  I  go. 

I  cannot  enable  those  who  have  not  witnessed  it  to  compre 
hend  the  full  extent  of  the  suffering  in  the  Eastern  cities.  It 
was  painful,  indeed,  to  behold  it.  So  many  bankruptcies  among 
great  and  small  dealers,  so  much  property  sacrificed,  so  many 
industrious  men  altogether  broken  up  in  their  business,  so  many 
families  reduced  from  competence  to  want,  so  many  hopes 
crushed;  so  many  happy  prospects  for  ever  clouded,  and  such 

*  A  Speech  delivered  on  the  17th  of  May,  1837,  at  a  Public  Dinner  given 
to  Mr.  Webster  by  the  Citizens  of  Wheeling,  Virginia. 


384  RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 

fearful  looking  for  still  greater  calamities,  —  all  united  form 
such  a  mass  of  evil  as  I  had  never  expected  to  see,  except  as 
the  result  of  war,  a  pestilence,  or  some  other  external  calamity. 

I  have  no  wish,  in  the  present  state  of  things,  nor  should  I 
have,  indeed,  if  the  state  of  things  were  different,  to  obtrude  the 
expression  of  my  political  sentiments  on  such  of  my  fellow-cit 
izens  as  I  may  happen  to  meet ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  have  I 
any  motive  for  concealing  them,  or  suppressing  their  expression, 
whenever  others  desire  that  I  should  make  them  known.     In 
deed,  on  the  great  topics  that  now  engage  public  attention,  I 
hope  I  may  flatter  myself  that  my  opinions  are  already  known. 
Recent  evils  have  not  at  all  surprised  me,  except  that  they 
have   come   sooner  and  faster  than   I  had  anticipated.      But, 
though  not  surprised,  I  am  afflicted ;  I  feel  any  thing  but  pleas 
ure  in  this  early  fulfilment  of  my  own  predictions.     Much  in 
jury  is  done,  which  the  wisest  future  counsels  can  never  repair, 
and  much  more  that  can  never  be  remedied  but  by  such  coun 
sels  and  by  the  lapse  of  time.     From  1832  to  the  present  mo 
ment,  I  have  foreseen  this  result.     I  may  safely  say  I  have  fore 
seen  it,  because  I  have  foretold  and  proclaimed  its  approach  in 
every  important  discussion  and  debate  in  the  public  body  of 
which  I  am  a  member.     In  1832,  I  happened  to  meet  with  a  cit 
izen  of  Wheeling,  now  present,  who  has  this  day  reminded  me 
of  what  I  then  anticipated,  as  the  result  of  the  measures  which 
the  administration  appeared  to  be  adopting  in  regard  to  the  cur 
rency.     In  the  summer  of  the  next  year,  1833,  I  was  here,  and 
suggested  to  friends  what  I  knew  to  be  resolved  upon  by  the 
executive,  namely,  the  removal  of  the  deposits  of  the  public 
funds  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  which  was  announced 
two  months  afterwards.     That  was  the  avowed  and  declared 
commencement  of  the  "  experiment."     You  know,  Gentlemen, 
the  obloquy  then  and  since  cast  upon  those  of  us  who  opposed 
this  "  experiment."     You  know  that  we  have  been  called  bank 
agents,  bank  advocates,  bank  hirelings.     You  know  that  it  has 
been  a  thousand  times  said,  that  the  experiment  worked  admi 
rably,  that  nothing  could  do  better,  that  it  was  the  highest  pos 
sible  evidence  of  the  political  wisdom  and  sagacity  of  its  con 
trivers,  and  that  none  opposed  it  or  doubted  its  efficiency  but 
the  wicked  or  the  stupid.     Well,  Gentlemen,  here  is  the  end,  if 
this  is  the  end,  of  this  notable  "  experiment."     Its  singular  wis- 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING.  385 

dom  has  come  to  this ;  its  fine  workings  have  wrought  out  an 
almost  general  bankruptcy. 

Its  lofty  promises,  its  grandeur,  its  flashes,  that  threw  other 
men's  sense  and  understanding  back  into  the  shade,  where  are 
they  now  ?  Here  is  the  "  fine  of  fines  and  the  recovery  of  re 
coveries."  Its  panics,  its  scoffs,  its  jeers,  its  jests,  its  gibes  at  all 
former  experience,  —  its  cry  of  "  a  new  policy,"  which  was  so 
much  to  delight  and  astonish  mankind,  —  to  this  conclusion  has 
it  come  at  last. 

"  But  yesterday,  it  might 

Have  stood  against  the  world  ;  now  lies  it  there, 

And  none  so  poor  to  do  it  reverence !  " 

It  is  with  no  feelings  of  boasting  or  triumph,  it  is  with  no 
disposition  to  arrogate  superior  wisdom  or  discernment,  but  it  is 
with  mortification,  with  humiliation,  with  unaffected  grief  and 
affliction,  that  I  contemplate  the  condition  of  difficulty  and  dis 
tress  to  which  this  country,  so  vigorous,  so  great,  so  enterprising, 
and  so  rich  in  internal  wealth,  has  been  brought  by  the  policy 
of  her  government. 

We  learn  to-day  that  most  of  the  Eastern  banks  have  stopped 
payment,  the  deposit  banks  as  well  as  others.  The  experiment 
has  exploded.  That  bubble,  which  so  many  of  us  have  all  along 
regarded  as  the  offspring  of  conceit,  presumption,  and  political 
quackery,  has  burst.  A  general  suspension  of  payment  must  be 
the  result ;  a  result  which  has  come  even  sooner  than  was  pre 
dicted.  Where  is  now  that  better  currency  that  was  promised  ? 
Where  is  that  specie  circulation  ?  Where  are  those  rivers  of 
gold  and  silver,  which  were  to  fill  the  treasury  of  the  government 
as  well  as  the  pockets  of  the  people  ?  Has  the  government  a 
single  hard  dollar  ?  Has  the  treasury  any  thing  in  the  world  but 
credit  and  deposits  in  banks  that  have  already  suspended  pay 
ment  ?  How  are  public  creditors  now  to  be  paid  in  specie  ? 
How  are  the  deposits,  which  the  law  requires  to  be  made  with 
the  States  on  the  1st  of  July,  now  to  be  made  ?  We  must  go 
back  to  the  beginning,  and  take  a  new  start.  Every  step  in  our 
financial  banking  system,  since  1832,  has  been  a  false  step ;  it 
has  been  a  step  which  has  conducted  us  farther  and  farther  from 
the  path  of  safety. 

The  discontinuance  of  the  national  bank,  the  illegal  removal 
of  the  deposits,  the  accumulation  of  the  public  revenue  in 

VOL.  i.  33 


386  RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 

banks  selected  by  the  executive,  and  for  a  long  time  subject  to 
no  legal  regulation  or  restraint,  and  finally  the  unauthorized  and 
illegal  treasury  order,  have  brought  us  where  we  are.  The  de 
struction  of  the  national  bank  was  the  signal  for  the  creation  of 
an  unprecedented  number  of  new  State  banks,  often  with  nom 
inal  capitals,  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  business  of  the  quar 
ters  where  they  were  established.  These  banks,  lying  under  no 
restraint  from  the  general  government  or  any  of  its  institutions, 
issued  paper  money  corresponding  to  their  own  sense  of  their 
immediate  interests  and  hopes  of  gain.  The  deposit  with  the 
State  banks  of  the  whole  public  revenue,  then  accumulated  to  a 
vast  amount,  and  making  this  deposit  without  any  legal  re 
straint  or  control  whatever,  increased  both  the  power  and  dispo 
sition  of  these  banks  for  extensive  issues.  In  this  way  the  gov 
ernment  seems  to  have  administered  every  possible  provocation 
to  the  banks  to  induce  them  to  extend  their  circulation.  It  uni 
formly,  zealously,  and  successfully  opposed  the  land  bill,  a  most 
useful  measure,  by  which  accumulation  in  the  treasury  would 
have  been  prevented ;  and,  as  if  it  desired  and  sought  this  ac 
cumulation,  it  finally  resisted,  with  all  its  power,  the  deposit 
among  the  States.  It  is  urged  as  a  reason  for  the  present  over 
throw,  that  an  extraordinary  spirit  of  speculation  has  gone 
abroad,  and  has  been  manifested  particularly  and  strongly  in 
the  endeavor  to  purchase  the  public  lands ;  but  has  not  every 
act  of  the  government  directly  encouraged  this  spirit?  It  ac 
cumulated  revenue  which  it  did  not  need,  all  of  which  is  left  in 
the  deposit  banks.  The  banks  had  money  to  lend,  and  there 
were  enough  who  were  ready  to  borrow,  for  the  purpose  of  pur 
chasing  the  public  lands  at  government  prices.  The  public  treas 
ury  was  thus  made  the  great  and  efficient  means  of  effecting  those 
purchases  which  have  since  been  so  much  denounced  as  extrav 
agant  speculation  and  extensive  monopoly.  These  purchasers 
borrowed  the  public  money ;  they  used  the  public  money  to  buy 
the  public  property ;  they  speculated  on  the  strength  of  the  pub 
lic  money ;  and  while  all  this  was  going  on,  and  every  man  saw 
it,  the  administration  resisted,  to  the  utmost  of  its  power,  every 
attempt  to  withdraw  this  money  from  the  banks  and  from  the 
hands  of  those  speculators,  and  distribute  it  among  the  people 
to  whom  it  belonged. 

If,  then,  there   has  been   over-trading,  the   government   has 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING.  387 

encouraged  it;  if  there  have  been  rash  speculations  in  the 
public  lands,  the  government  has  furnished  the  means  out  of 
the  treasury.  These  unprecedented  sales  of  the  public  domain 
were  boasted  of  as  proofs  of  a  happy  state  of  things,  and  of 
a  wise  administration  of  the  government,  down  to  the  moment 
when  Congress,  in  opposition  to  executive  wishes,  passed  the 
distribution  law,  thus  withdrawing  the  surplus  revenue  from  the 
deposit  banks.  The  success  of  that  measure  compelled  a  change 
in  the  executive  policy,  as  the  accumulation  of  a  vast  amount  of 
money  in  the  treasury  was  no  longer  desirable.  This  is  the 
most  favorable  motive  to  which  I  can  ascribe  the  treasury  order 
of  July.  It  is  now  said  that  that  order  was  issued  for  the  pur 
pose  of  enforcing  a  strict  execution  of  the  law  which  forbids  the 
allowance  of  credits  upon  purchases  of  the  public  lands ;  but 
there  was  no  such  credit  allowed  before ;  not  an  hour  was  given 
beyond  the  time  of  sale.  In  this  respect,  the  order  produces  no 
difference  whatever.  Its  only  effect  is  to  require  an  immediate 
payment  in  specie,  whereas,  before,  an  immediate  payment  in 
the  bills  of  specie-paying  banks  was  demanded.  There  is  no 
more  credit  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other ;  and  the  govern 
ment  gets  just  as  much  specie  in  one  case  as  in  the  other ;  for 
no  sooner  is  the  specie,  which  the  purchaser  is  compelled  to  pro 
cure,  often  at  great  charge,  paid  to  the  receiver,  than  it  is  sent  to 
the  deposit  banks,  and  the  government  has  credit  for  it  on  the 
books  of  the  bank ;  but  the  specie  itself  is  again  sold  by  the 
bank,  or  disposed  of  as  it  sees  fit.  It  is  evident  that  the  govern 
ment  gets  nothing  by  all  this,  though  the  purchasers  of  small 
tracts  are  put  to  great  trouble  and  expense.  No  one  gains  any 
thing  but  the  banks  and  the  brokers.  It  is,  moreover,  most  true 
that  the  art  of  man  could  not  have  devised  a  plan  more  effects 
ally  to  give  to  the  large  purchasers  or  speculators  a  decided  pref 
erence  and  advantage  over  small  purchasers,  who  bought  for 
actual  settlement,  than  the  treasury  order  of  July,  1836.  The 
stoppage  of  the  banks,  however,  has  now  placed  the  actual  set 
tler  in  a  still  more  unfortunate  situation.  How  is  he  to  obtain 
money  to  pay  for  his  quarter-section  ?  He  must  travel  three  or 
four  times  as  many  miles  for  it  as  he  has  dollars  to  pay,  even 
if  he  should  be  able  to  obtain  it  at  the  end  of  that  journey. 

I  will  not  say  that  other  causes,  at  home  and  abroad,  have 
not  had  an  agency  in  bringing  about  the  present  derangement. 


388  RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 

I  know  that  credits  have  been  used  beyond  all  former  example. 
It  is  probable  the  spirit  of  trade  has  been  too  highly  excited,  and 
that  the  pursuit  of  business  may  have  been  pressed  too  fast  and 
too  far.  All  this  I  am  ready  to  admit.  But  instead  of  doing 
any  thing  to  abate  this  tendency,  the  government  has  been  the 
prime  instrument  of  fostering  and  encouraging  it.  It  has  parted 
voluntarily,  and  by  advice,  with  all  control  over  the  actual  cur 
rency  of  the  country.  It  has  given  a  free  and  full  scope  to  the 
spirit  of  banking ;  it  has  aided  the  spirit  of  speculation  with  the 
public  treasures ;  and  it  has  done  all  this,  in  the  midst  of  loud- 
sounding  promises  of  an  exclusive  specie  medium,  and  a  pro 
fessed  detestation  of  all  banking  institutions. 

It  is  vain,  therefore,  to  say  that  the  present  state  of  affairs  is 
owing,  not  to  the  acts  of  government,  but  to  other  causes,  over 
which  government  could  exercise  no  control.  Much  of  it  is  ow 
ing  to  the  course  of  the  national  government ;  and  what  is  not 
so,  is  owing  to  causes  the  operation  of  which  government  was 
bound  in  duty  to  use  all  its  legal  powers  to  control. 

Is  there  an  intelligent  man  in  the  community,  at  this  moment, 
who  believes  that,  if  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  been 
continued,  if  the  deposits  had  not  been  removed,  if  the  specie 
circular  had  not  been  issued,  the  financial  affairs  of  the  country 
would  have  been  in  as  bad  a  state  as  they  now  are  ?  When 
certain  consequences  are  repeatedly  depicted  and  foretold  from 
particular  causes,  when  the  manner  in  which  these  consequences 
will  be  produced  is  precisely  pointed  out  beforehand,  and  when 
the  consequences  come  in  the  manner  foretold,  who  will  stand 
up  and  declare,  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is  no  con 
nection  between  the  cause  and  the  consequence,  and  that  all 
these  effects  are  attributable  to  some  other  causes,  nobody  knows 
what? 

No  doubt  but  we  shall  hear  every  cause  but  the  true  one 
assigned  for  the  present  distress.  It  will  be  laid  to  the  opposi 
tion  in  and  out  of  Congress ;  it  will  be  laid  to  the  bank ;  it  will 
be  laid  to  the  merchants;  it  will  be  laid  to  the  manufacturers; 
it  will  be  laid  to  the  tariff;  it  will  be  laid  to  the  north  star,  or  to 
the  malign  influence  of  the  last  comet,  whose  tail  swept  near  or 
across  the  orbit  of  our  earth,  before  we  shah1  be  allowed  to  as 
cribe  it  to  its  just,  main  causes,  a  tampering  with  the  currency, 
and  an  attempt  to  stretch  executive  power  over  a  subject  not 
constitutionally  within  its  reach. 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING.  389 

We  have  heard.  Gentlemen,  of  the  suspension  of  some  of  the 
Eastern  banks  only ;  but  I  fear  the  same  course  must  be  adopt 
ed  by  all  the  banks  throughout  the  country.  The  United  States 
Bank,  now  a  mere  State  institution,  with  no  public  deposits,  no 
aid  from  government,  but,  on  the  contrary,  long  an  object  of 
bitter  persecution  by  it,  was,  at  our  last  advices,  still  firm.  But 
can  we  expect  of  that  bank  to  make  sacrifices  to  continue  spe 
cie  payment?  If  it  continue  to  do  so  now  that  the  deposit 
banks  have  stopped,  the  government,  if  possible,  will  draw 
from  it  its  last  dollar,  in  order  to  keep  up  a  pretence  of  making 
its  own  payments  in  specie.  I  shall  be  glad  if  this  institution 
find  it  prudent  and  proper  to  hold  out ;  *  but  as  it  owes  no  more 
duty  to  the  government  than  any  other  bank,  and,  of  course, 
much  less  than  the  deposit  banks,  I  cannot  see  any  ground  for 
demanding  from  it  efforts  and  sacrifices  to  favor  the  government, 
which  those  holding  the  public  money,  and  owing  duty  to  the 
government,  are  unwilling  or  unable  to  make.  Nor  do  I  see 
how  the  New  England  banks  can  stand  alone  in  the  general 
crash.  I  believe  those  in  Massachusetts  are  very  sound  and 
entirely  solvent ;  I  have  every  confidence  in  their  ability  to  pay  * 
and  I  shall  rejoice  if,  amidst  the  present  wreck,  we  find  them 
able  to  withstand  the  storm.  At  the  same  time,  I  confess  I  shall 
not  be  disappointed,  if  they,  seeing  no  public  object  to  be  at 
tained  proportioned  to  the  private  loss,  and  individual  sacrifice 
and  ruin,  which  must  result  from  resorting  to  the  means  neces 
sary  to  enable  them  to  hold  out,  should  not  be  distinguished 
from  their  Southern  and  Western  neighbors. 

I  believe,  Gentlemen,  the  "  experiment "  must  go  through.  I 
believe  every  part  and  portion  of  our  country  will  have  a  satis 
factory  taste  of  the  "  better  currency."  I  believe  we  shall  be 
blest  again  with  the  currency  of  1812,  when  money  was  the  only 
uncurrent  species  of  property.  We  have,  amidst  all  the  distress 
that  surrounds  us,  men  in  and  out  of  power,  who  condemn  a 
national  bank  in  every  form,  maintain  the  efficacy  and  efficiency 
of  State  banks  for  domestic  exchange,  and,  amidst  all  the  suffer 
ings  and  terrors  of  the  "experiment,"  cry  out,  that  they  are  es 
tablishing  "  a  better  currency."  The  "  experiment," — the  exper 
iment  upon  what  ?  The  experiment  of  one  man  upon  the  hap- 

*  The  mail  of  that  day  brought  advice  of  its  suspension.  See  the  note  on 
page  378. 

33* 


390  RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 

piness,  the  well-being,  and,  I  may  almost  say,  upon  the  lives,  of 
twelve  millions  of  human  beings,  —  an  "experiment"  that  found 
us  in  health,  that  found  us  with  the  best  currency  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  the  same  from  the  North  to  the  South,  from  Boston  to 
St.  Louis,  equalling  silver  or  gold  in  any  part  of  our  Union,  and 
possessing  the  unlimited  confidence  of  foreign  countries,  and 
which  leaves  us  crushed,  ruined,  without  means  at  home,  and 
without  credit  abroad. 

This  word  "  experiment "  appears  likely  to  get  into  no  envi 
able  notoriety.  It  may  probably  be  held,  in  future,  to  signify 
any  thing  which  is  too  excruciating  to  be  borne,  like  a  pang  of 
the  rheumatism  or  an  extraordinary  twinge  of  the  gout.  In 
deed,  from  the  experience  we  now  have,  we  may  judge  that  the 
bad  eminence  of  the  Inquisition  itself  may  be  superseded  by  it, 
and  if  one  shall  be  hereafter  stretched  upon  the  rack,  or  broken  on 
the  wheel,  it  may  be  said,  while  all  his  bones  are  cracking,  all 
his  muscles  snapping,  all  his  veins  are  pouring,  that  he  is  only 
passing  into  a  better  state  through  the  delightful  process  of  an 
"  experiment." 

Gentlemen,  you  will  naturally  ask,  Where  is  this  to  end,  and 
what  is  to  be  the  remedy  ?  These  are  questions  of  momentous 
importance ;  but  probably  the  proper  moment  has  not  come  for 
considering  this.  We  are  yet  in  the  midst  of  the  whirlwind. 
Every  man's  thoughts  are  turned  to  his  own  immediate  preser 
vation.  When  the  blast  is  over,  and  we  have  breathing-time, 
the  country  must  take  this  subject,  this  all-important  subject  of 
relief  for  the  present  and  security  for  the  future,  into  its  most 
serious  consideration.  It  will,  undoubtedly,  first  engage  the 
attention  and  wisdom  of  Congress.  It  will  call  on  public  men, 
intrusted  with  public  affairs,  to  lay  aside  party  and  private  pref 
erences  and  prejudices,  and  unite  in  the  great  work  of  redeem 
ing  the  country  from  this  state  of  disaster  and  disgrace.  All 
that  I  mean  at  present  to  say  is,  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  stands  chargeable,  in  my  opinion,  with  a  gross 
dereliction  from  duty,  in  leaving  the  currency  of  the  country 
entirely  at  the  mercy  of  others,  without  seeking  to  exercise  over 
it  any  control  whatever.  The  means  of  exercising  this  control 
rest  in  the  wisdom  of  Congress,  but  the  duty  I  hold  to  be  im 
perative.  It  is  a  power  that  cannot  be  yielded  to  others  with 
safety  to  itself  or  to  them.  It  might  as  well  give  up  to  the  States 


RECEPTION   AT  WHEELING.  391 

the  power  of  making  peace  or  war,  and  leave  the  twenty-six 
independent  sovereignties  to  select  their  own  foes,  raise  their 
own  troops,  and  conclude  their  own  terms  of  peace.  It  might 
as  well  leave  the  States  to  impose  their  own  duties  and  regulate 
their  own  terms  and  treaties  of  commerce,  as  to  give  up  control 
over  the  currency  in  which  all  are  interested. 

The  present  government  has  been  in  operation  forty-eight 
years.  During  forty  of  these  forty-eight  years  we  have  had  a 
national  institution  performing  the  duties  of  a  fiscal  agent  to  the 
government,  and  exercising  a  most  useful  control  over  the  do 
mestic  exchanges  and  over  the  currency  of  the  country.  The 
first  institution  was  chartered  on  the  ground  that  such  an  insti 
tution  was  necessary  to  the  safe  and  economical  administration 
of  the  treasury  department  in  the  collection  and  disbursement 
of  its  revenue.  The  experience  of  the  new  government  had 
clearly  proved  this  necessity.  At  that  time,  however,  there  were 
those  who  doubted  the  power  of  Congress,  under  the  provisions 
of  the  Constitution,  to  incorporate  a  bank;  but  a  majority  of 
both  houses  were  of  a  different  opinion.  President  Washington 
sanctioned  the  measure,  and  among  those  who  entertained 
doubts  on  the  subject,  the  statesmen  of  most  weight  and  con 
sideration  in  the  Union,  and  whose  opinions  were  entitled  to  the 
highest  respect,  yielded  to  the  opinion  of  Congress  and  the 
country,  and  considered  it  a  settled  question.  Among  those 
who  first  doubted  of  the  power  of  the  government  to  establish 
a  national  bank,  was  one  whose  name  should  never  be  men 
tioned  without  respect,  one  for  whom  I  can  say  I  feel  as  high  a 
veneration  as  one  man  can  or  ought  to  feel  for  another,  one  who 
was  intimately  associated  with  all  the  provisions  of  the  Consti 
tution,  —  Mr.  Madison.  Yet,  when  Congress  had  decided  on 
the  measure,  by  large  majorities,  when  the  President  had  ap 
proved  it,  when  the  judicial  tribunals  had  sanctioned  it>  when 
public  opinion  had  deliberately  and  decidedly  confirmed  it,  he 
looked  on  the  subject  as  definitely  and  finally  settled.  The 
reasoners  of  our  day  think  otherwise.  No  decision,  no  public 
sanction,  no  judgment  of  the  tribunals,  is  allowed  to  weigh 
against  their  respect  for  their  own  opinions.  They  rush  to  the 
argument  as  to  that  of  a  new  question,  despising  all  lights  but 
that  of  their  own  unclouded  sagacity,  and  careless  alike  of  the 
venerable  living  and  of  the  mighty  dead.  They  poise  this  im- 


392  RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING. 

portant  question  upon  some  small  points  of  their  own  slender 
logic,  and  decide  it  on  the  strength  of  their  own  unintelligible 
metaphysics.  It  never  enters  into  all  their  thoughts  that  this  is 
a  question  to  be  judged  of  on  broad,  comprehensive,  and  prac 
tical  grounds ;  still  less  does  it  occur  to  them  that  an  exposition 
of  the  Constitution,  contemporaneous  with  its  earliest  existence, 
acted  on  for  nearly  half  a  century,  in  which  the  original  framers 
and  government  officers  of  the  highest  note  concurred,  ought  to 
have  any  weight  in  their  decision,  or  inspire  them  with  the  least 
doubt  of  the  accuracy  and  soundness  of  their  own  opinions. 
They  soar  so  high  in  the  regions  of  self-respect  as  to  be  far 
beyond  the  reach  of  all  such  considerations. 

For  sound  views  upon  the  subject  of  a  national  bank,  I  would 
commend  you,  Gentlemen,  to  the  messages  of  Mr.  Madison,  and 
to  his  letter  on  the  subject.  They  are  the  views  of  a  truly  great 
man  and  a  statesman. 

As  the  first  Bank  of  the  United  States  had  its  origin  in  neces 
sity,  so  had  the  second ;  and,  although  there  was  something  of 
misfortune,  and  certainly  something  of  mismanagement,  in  its 
early  career,  no  candid  and  intelligent  man  can,  for  a  moment, 
doubt  or  deny  its  usefulness,  or  that  it  fully  accomplished  the 
object  for  which  it  was  created.  Exchanges,  during  all  the  later 
years  of  its  existence,  were  easily  effected,  and  a  currency  the 
most  uniform  of  any  in  the  world  existed  throughout  the  coun 
try.  The  opponents  of  these  institutions  did  not  deny  that  gen 
eral  prosperity  and  a  happy  state  of  things  existed  at  the  time 
they  were  in  operation,  but  contended  that  equal  prosperity 
would  exist  without  them,  while  specie  would  take  the  place  of 
their  issues  as  a  circulating  medium.  How  have  their  words 
been  verified  ?  Both  in  the  case  of  the  first  bank  and  that  of 
the  last,  a  general  suspension  of  specie  payments  has  hap 
pened  in  about  a  year  from  the  time  they  were  suffered  to  ex 
pire,  and  a  universal  confusion  and  distrust  prevailed.  The 
charter  of  the  first  bank  expired  in  1811,  and  all  the  State  banks, 
south  of  New  England,  stopped  payment  in  1812.  The  charter 
of  the  late  bank  expired  in  March,  1836,  and  in  May,  1837, 
a  like  distrust,  and  a  like  suspension  of  the  State  banks,  have 
taken  place. 

The  same  results,  we  may  readily  suppose,  are  attributable  to 
the  same  causes,  and  we  must  look  to  the  experience  and  wis- 


RECEPTION  AT  WHEELING.  393 

dom  of  the  people  and  of  Congress  to  apply  the  requisite  remedy. 
I  will  not  say  the  only  remedy  is  a  national  bank ;  but  I  will  say 
that,  in  my  opinion  the  only  sure  remedy  for  the  evils  that  now 
prey  upon  us  is  the  assumption,  by  the  delegates  of  the  people 
in  the  national  government,  of  some  lawful  control  over  the 
finances  of  the  nation,  and  a  power  of  regulating  its  currency. 

Gentlemen,  allow  me  again  to  express  my  thanks  for  the  kind 
ness  you  have  shown  me  this  day,  and  in  conclusion  to  assure 
you,  that,  though  a  representative  in  the  federal  government  of 
but  a  small  section,  when  compared  with  the  vast  territory  that 
acknowledges  allegiance  to  that  government,  I  shall  never  forget 
that  I  am  acting  for  the  whole  country,  and,  so  far  as  I  am 
capable,  will  pledge  myself  impartially  to  use  every  exertion  for 
that  country's  welfare. 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


THE  following  account  of  Mr.  Webster's  visit  to  Madison,  Indiana,  is 
taken  from  the  "  Republican  Banner,"  of  the  7th  of  June,  1837. 

"  DANIEL  WEBSTER  visited  our  town  on  Thursday  last.  Notice  had 
been  given  the  day  previous  of  the  probable  time  of  his  arrival.  At  the 
hour  designated,  crowds  of  citizens  from  the  town  and  country  thronged 
the  quay.  A  gun  from  the  Ben  Franklin,  as  she  swept  gracefully  round 
the  point,  gave  notice  of  his  approach,  and  was  answered  by  a  gun  from 
the  shore.  Gun  followed  gun  in  quick  succession,  from  boat  and  shore, 
and  the  last  of  the  old  national  salute  was  echoing  from  hill  and  glen 
as  the  Franklin  reached  the  wharf.  Mr.  Webster  was  immediately 
waited  on  by  the  committee  appointed  to  receive  him,  and,  attended  by 
them,  a  committee  of  invitation  from  Cincinnati,  and  several  gentlemen 
from  Louisville,  he  landed  amidst  the  cheers  and  acclamations  of  the 
assembled  multitude.  He  was  seated  in  an  elegant  barouche,  supported 
by  Governor  Hendricks  and  John  King,  Esq.,  and,  with  the  different 
committees,  and  a  large  procession  of  citizens  in  barouches,  on  horse 
back,  and  on  foot,  formed  under  the  direction  of  Messrs.  Wharton  and 
Payne  of  the  committee  of  arrangements,  marshals  of  the  day,  proceed 
ed  to  the  place  appointed  for  his  reception,  an  arbor  erected  at  the  north 
end  of  the  market-house,  fronting  the  large  area  formed  by  the  intersec 
tion  of  Main  and  Main  Cross  Streets  and  the  public  square,  and  taste 
fully  decorated  with  shrubbery,  evergreens,  and  wreaths  of  flowers. 
In  the  background  appeared  portraits  of  Washington  and  Lafayette, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  several  other  appropriate  badges 
and  emblems,  while  in  front  a  flag  floated  proudly  on  the  breeze,  bear 
ing  for  its  motto  the  ever-memorable  sentiment  with  which  he  concluded 
his  immortal  speech  in  defence  of  the  Constitution,  c  LIBERTY  AND  UN 
ION,  NOW  AND  FOR  EVER,  ONE  AND  INSEPARABLE.'  When  the  procession 

arrived,  Mr.  Webster  ascended  the  stand  in  the  arbor,  supported  by 
Governor  Hendricks  and  the  committee  of  arrangements,  when  he  was 
appropriately  and  eloquently  addressed  by  J.  G.  Marshall,  Esq.,  on  be 
half  of  the  citizens,  to  which  he  responded  in  a  speech  of  an  hour's 
length." 

The  following  correspondence  preceded  Mr.  Webster's  visit. 
VOL.  i.  34 


398  RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 

"  Louisville,  May  30,  1837. 

"  HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER  :  — 

"  Sir, —  Your  fellow-citizens  of  the  town  of  Madison,  Indiana,  deeply 
impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  obligations  which  they  and  all  the  true 
lovers  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  friends  to  our  happy  and  glorious 
Union,  owe  you  for  the  many  prominent  services  rendered  by  you  to 
their  beloved,  though  now  much  agitated  and  injured  country,  having 
appointed  the  undersigned  a  committee  through  whom  to  tender  you 
their  salutations  and  the  hospitalities  of  their  town,  desire  us  earnestly 
to  request  you  to  partake  of  a  public  dinner,  or  such  other  expression  of 
the  high  estimation  in  which  they  hold  you  as  may  be  most  acceptable, 
at  such  time  as  you  may  designate. 

"  Entertaining  the  hope  that  you  may  find  it  convenient  to  comply  with 
this  request  of  our  constituents  and  ourselves,  we  beg  leave,  with  sen 
timents  of  the  most  profound  respect  and  regard,  to  subscribe  our 
selves, 

"  Your  fellow-citizens, 

W.  LYLE, 

W.    J.    McCLURE, 

WM.  F.  COLLUM,  I  Committee  i 
A.  W.  PITCHER, 
JAS.  E.  LEWIS, 

D.    L.    McCLURE, 

ANSWER. 

"  Louisville,  May  30,  1837. 

"  GENTLEMEN,  —  I  feel  much  honored  by  the  communication  which 
I  have  received  from  you,  expressing  the  friendly  sentiments  of  my  fel 
low-citizens  of  Madison,  and  desiring  that  I  should  pay  them  a  visit. 

"  Although  so  kind  an  invitation,  meeting  me  at  so  great  a  distance, 
was  altogether  unlocked  for,  I  had  yet  determined  not  to  pass  so  inter 
esting  a  point  on  the  Ohio  without  making  some  short  stay  at  it.  I  shall 
leave  this  place  on  Thursday  morning,  and  will  stop  at  Madison,  and 
shall  be  most  happy  to  see  any  of  its  citizens  who  may  desire  to  meet 
me.  I  must  pray  to  be  excused  from  a  formal  public  dinner,  as  well 
from  a  regard  to  the  time  which  it  will  be  in  my  power  to  pass  with  you, 
as  from  a  general  wish,  whenever  it  is  practicable,  to  avoid  every  thing 
like  ceremony  or  show  in  my  intercourse  with  my  fellow-citizens. 

"  You  truly  observe,  Gentlemen,  that  the  country  at  the  present  mo 
ment  is  agitated.  I  think,  too,  that  you  are  right  in  saying  it  is  injured ; 
that  is,  I  think  public  measures  -of  a  very  injurious  character  and  ten 
dency  have  been  unfortunately  adopted.  But  our  case  is  not  one  that 
leads  us  to  much  despondency.  The  country,  the  happy  and  glorious 
country  in  which  you  and  I  live,  is  great,  free,  and  full  of  resources ; 
and,  in  the  main,  an  intelligent  and  patriotic  spirit  pervades  the  commu 
nity.  These  will  bring  all  things  right.  Whatsoever  has  been  injudi 
ciously  or  rashly  done  may  be  corrected  by  wiser  counsels.  Nothing  can, 
for  any  great  length  of  time,  depress  the  great  interests  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  if  wisdom  and  honest  good-sense  shall  prevail  in  their 
public  measures.  Our  present  point  of  suffering  is  the  currency,  ID 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON.  399 

my  opinion,  this  is  an  interest  with  the  preservation  of  which  Congress 
is  charged,  solemnly  and  deeply  charged.  A  uniform  currency  was 
one  of  the  great  objects  of  the  Union.  If  we  fail  to  maintain  it,  we  so 
far  fail  of  what  was  intended  by  the  national  Constitution.  Let  us  strive 
to  avert  this  reproach  from  that  government  and  that  Union,  which  make 
us,  in  so  many  respects,  ONE  PEOPLE  !  Be  assured,  that  to  the  attain 
ment  of  this  end  every  power  and  faculty  of  my  mind  shall  be  directed  ; 
and  may  Providence  so  prosper  us,  that  no  one  shall  be  able  to  say, 
that  in  any  thing  this  glorious  union  of  the  States  has  come  short  of  ful 
filling  either  its  own  duties  or  the  just  expectations  of  the  people. 

"  With  sentiments  of   true    regard,  Gentlemen,  I    am   your   much 
obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

"  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

"  To  W.  LYLE, 


W.  J.  McCLURE, 

WM.  F.  COLLUM, 
A.  W.  PITCHER, 
JAMES  E.  LEWIS, 

D.  L.  McCLURE, 


>  Committee." 


The  address  of  Mr.  Marshall,  above  alluded  to,  was  as  follows:  — 

"  SIR,  —  The  people  now  assembled  around  you,  through  me,  the 
humble  organ  of  their  selection,  do  most  sincerely  and  cordially  wel 
come  you  to  Madison.  In  extending  to  you  the  most  liberal  hospitality, 
they  do  no  more,  however,  than  they  would  be  inclined  to  do  towards 
the  humblest  citizen  of  our  common  country.  But  this  public  and 
formal  manifestation  of  the  feeling  of  regard  which  they  entertain  for 
you  is  intended  to  do  more  than  inform  you  of  the  simple  fact  that  here 
you  can  find  food  and  shelter,  and  partake  with  them  of  the  pleasures  of 
the  social  circle.  If  this  were  all,  it  might  be  communicated  in  a  man 
ner  more  acceptable,  by  extending  to  you  the  hand  of  friendship  and 
kindly  pointing  you  to  the  family  board  ;  but  by  this  public  parade,  this 
assembling  of  the  people  around  you,  it  is  intended  to  give  you  that  con 
solation,  (most  grateful  and  cheering  to  every  true  American  heart,) 
the  people's  approbation  of  your  acts  as  a  public  servant.  This  is  done, 
not  with  that  abject  feeling  which  characterizes  the  homage  of  subjects, 
but  with  that  nobler  feeling  which  prompts  freemen  to  honor  and  esteem 
those  who  have  been  their  country's  benefactors.  Prompted  by  such 
feeling,  the  patriots  of  the  Revolution  delighted  to  honor  the  father  of 
our  country.  He  led  his  armies  to  victory,  and  thus  wrested  the  liberties' 
of  his  countrymen  from  the  grasp  of  a  tyrant ;  and  may  we  not  from 
like  impulses  manifest  gratitude  towards  those  who,  by  the  power  of 
th(jir  intellects,  have  effectually  rebuked  erroneous  principles,  which 
were  evidently  undermining  and  endangering  the  very  existence  of  our 
beloved  Union  ?  Yes,  Sir,  our  country  has  now  nothing  to  fear  from 
external  violence.  It  is  a  danger  which  the  whole  countiy  can  see  on  its 
first  approach,  and  every  arm  will  be  nerved  at  once  to  repel  it ;  it  can 
be  met  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  millions  would  now,  as  in  days 
that  are  past,  be  ready  to  shed  their  blood  in  defence  of  their  country. 


400  RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 

But,  Sir,  in  those  who  artfully  excite  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the 
people,  and,  by  presenting  to  them  the  most  plausible  pretexts  (for  their 
own  selfish  purposes),  lead  them  thoughtlessly  to  abandon  the  sacred 
principles  upon  which  our  government  is  founded,  and  to  reject  the  meas 
ures  which  can  alone  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  —  in  such 
we  meet  an  enemy  against  whom  the  most  daring  bravery  of  the  soldier 
is  totally  unavailing. 

"  The  injury  which  is  inflicted  is  not  at  first  felt ;  time  is  required  to 
develop  it ;  and  when  developed,  the  closest  investigation  may  be  neces 
sary  to  trace  it  to  its  cause  ;  this  the  people  may  not  be  able  to  accom 
plish.  This  enemy  to  the  country  can  only  be  discerned  by  the  keen 
eye  of  the  statesman,  and  met  and  conquered  by  the  power  of  his  intel 
lect.  And  he  who  is  successful  in  thus  defending  his  country  may  well 
be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  his  fellow-citizens.  It  is  for  such 
reasons,  Sir,  that  we  have  presented  to  you  these  testimonials  of  our  ap 
probation.  Though  personally  a  stranger  to  us,  your  public  character, 
your  masterly  efforts  in  defence  of  the  Constitution,  the  services  you 
have  rendered  the  West,  and  the  principles  and  measures  which  you 
have  so  ably  advocated,  are  known  and  approved,  and  I  hope  will  ever 
be  remembered  by  us.  And  although  some  of  your  efforts  have  proved 
for  the  time  unsuccessful,  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  would  now  have  a  dif 
ferent  effect.  When  the  old  and  established  measures  of  any  govern 
ment  have  been  abandoned  for  new  ones,  simply  as  an  experiment, 
and  when  that  experiment,  if  it  does  not  produce,  is,  to  say  the  least,  im 
mediately  followed  by,  ruin  and  distress  in  every  part  of  the  country, 
may  we  not  hope  that  men  will  at  least  calmly  and  dispassionately  hear 
and  weigh  the  reasons  why  a  different  policy  should  be  adopted  ?  But 
if  the  people's  representatives  cannot  be  convinced  of  the  error  into 
which  they  have  been  led,  it  is  high  time  the  people  themselves  should 
awake  from  their  slumbers.  A  dark  cloud  hangs  over  the  land,  so  thick, 
so  dark,  a  ray  of  hope  can  hardly  penetrate  it.  But  shall  the  people 
gird  on  their  armor  and  march  to  battle  ?  No,  Sir ;  it  is  a  battle  which 
they  must  fight  through  the  ballot-box ;  and  perhaps  they  do  not  know 
against  what  to  direct  their  effort ;  they  are  almost  in  a  state  of  despon 
dency,  ready  to  conclude  that  they  are  driven  to  the  verge  of  ruin  by  a 
kind  of  irresistible  destiny.  The  cause  of  the  evil  can  be  discovered 
only  by  investigation ;  and  to  their  public  men  they  must  look  for  infor 
mation  and  for  wisdom  to  direct  them.  But,  Sir,  it  is  not  our  object  to 
relate  to  you  our  grievances,  or  recount  the  past  services  which  you 
have  rendered  your  country.  We  wish  to  cheer  you  on  to  increased 
efforts  in  urging  the  measures  you  have  heretofore  so  zealously  and  ably 
•Advocated.  May  your  success  be  equal  to  your  efforts,  and  may  hap- 
piness  and  prosperity  attend  you  through  life." 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON; 


IF,  fellow-citizens,  I  can  make  myself  heard  by  this  numerous 
assembly,  speaking,  as  I  do,  in  the  open  air,  I  will  return  to  you 
my  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  kindness  you  have  shown  me.  I 
come  among  you  a  stranger.  On  the  day  before  yesterday  I 
placed  my  foot,  for  the  first  time,  on  the  soil  of  the  great  and 
growing  State  of  Indiana.  Although  I  have  lived  on  terms  of 
great  intimacy  and  friendship  with  several  Western  gentlemen, 
members  of  Congress,  among  whom  is  your  estimable  towns 
man  near  me,  (Governor  Hendricks,)  I  have  never  before  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  and  forming  an  acquaintance  for  myself 
with  my  fellow-citizens  of  this  section  of  the  Union.  I  travel 
for  this  purpose.  I  confess  that  I  regard  with  astonishment  the 
evidences  of  intelligence,  enterprise,  and  refinement  everywhere 
exhibited  around  me,  when  I  think  of  the  short  time  that  has 
elapsed  since  the  spot  where  I  stand  was  a  howling  wilderness. 
Since  I  entered  public  life,  this  State  was  unknown  as  a  politi 
cal  government.  All  the  country  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and 
northwest  of  the  Ohio  constituted  but  one  Territory,  entitled  to 
a  single  delegate  in  the  counsels  of  the  nation,  having  the  right 
to  speak,  but  not  to  vote.  Since  then,  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  the  long  strip  of  country  known  as 
the  Territory  of  Wisconsin,  have  been  carved  out  of  it.  Indi 
ana,  which  numbers  but  twenty  years  since  the  commencement 
of  her  political  existence,  contains  a  population  of  six  hundred 
thousand,  equal  to  the  population  of  Massachusetts,  a  State  of 
two  hundred  years'  duration.  In  age  she  is  an  infant;  in 
strength  and  resources  a  giant.  Her  appearance  indicates  the 

*  A  Speech  delivered  at  Madison,  in  the  State  of  Indiana,  on  the  first  of  June 
1837,  on  Occasion  of  a  Public  Reception  by  the  Citizens  of  that  Place. 

34* 


402  RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 

full  vigor  of  maturity,  while,  measured  by  her  years,  she  is  yet 
in  the  cradle. 

Although  I  reside  in  a  part  of  the  country  most  remote  from 
you,  although  I  have  seen  you  spring  into  existence  and  ad 
vance  with  rapid  strides  in  the  march  of  prosperity  and  power, 
until  your  population  has  equalled  that  of  my  own  State,  which 
you  far  surpass  in  fertility  of  soil  and  mildness  of  climate ;  yet 
these  things  have  excited  in  me  no  feelings  of  dislike,  or  jeal 
ousy,  or  envy.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  witnessed  them  with 
pride  and  pleasure,  when  I  saw  in  them  the  growth  of  a  mem 
ber  of  our  common  country;  and  with  feelings  warmer  than 
pride,  when  I  recollect  that  there  are  those  among  you  who  are 
bone  of  my  bone  and  flesh  of  my  flesh,  who  inherit  my  name 
and  share  my  blood.  When  they  came  to  me  for  my  advice, 
before  leaving  their  hearths  and  homes,  I  did  not  oppose  their 
desires  or  suggest  difficulties  in  their  paths.  I  told  them,  "  Go 
and  join  your  destinies  with  those  of  the  hardy  pioneers  of  the 
West,  share  their  hardships,  and  partake  their  fortunes ;  go,  and 
God  speed  you ;  only  carry  with  you  your  own  good  principles, 
and  whether  the  sun  rises  on  you,  or  sets  on  you,  let  it  warm 
American  hearts  in  your  bosoms." 

Though,  as  I  observed,  I  live  in  a  part  of  the  country  most 
remote  from  you,  fellow- citizens,  I  have  been  no  inattentive  ob 
server  of  your  history  and  progress.  I  have  heard  of  the  reports 
made  in  your  legislature,  and  the  acts  passed  in  pursuance 
thereof.  I  have  traced  on  the  map  of  your  State  the  routes 
marked  out  for  extensive  turnpikes,  railroads,  and  canals.  I 
have  read  with  pleasure  the  acts  providing  for  their  establish 
ment  and  completion.  I  do  not  pretend  to  offer  you  my  advice; 
it  would  perhaps  be  presumptuous ;  but  you  will  permit  me  to 
say,  that,  as  far  as  I  have  examined  them,  they  are  conceived  in 
wisdom,  and  evince  great  political  skill  and  foresight.  You  have 
commenced  at  the  right  point.  To  open  the  means  of  commu 
nication,  by  which  man  may,  when  he  wishes,  see  the  face  of 
his  fi  iend,  should  be  the  first  work  of  every  government.  We 
nay  theorize  and  speculate  about  it  as  we  please,  —  we  may 
rnderstand  all  the  metaphysics  of  politics ;  but  if  men  are  con 
fined  to  the  narrow  spot  they  inhabit,  because  they  have  not  the 
means  of  travelling  when  they  please,  they  must  go  back  to  a 
state  of  barbarism.  Social  intercourse  is  the  corner-stone  of 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON.  403 

good  government.  The  nation  that  provides  no  means  for  the 
improvement  of  its  communications,  has  not  taken  the  first  step 
in  civilization.  Go  on,  then,  as  you  have  begun ;  prosecute  your 
works  with  energy  and  perseverance ;  be  not  daunted  by  imagi 
nary  difficulties,  be  not  deterred  by  exaggerated  calculations  of 
their  cost.  Go  on ;  open  your  wilderness  to  the  sun ;  turn  up  the 
soil;  and  in  the  wide-spread  and  highly-cultivated  fields,  the 
smiling  villages,  and  the  busy  towns  that  will  spring  up  from 
the  bosom  of  the  desert,  you  will  reap  a  rich  reward  for  your 
investment  and  industry. 

Another  of  the  paramount  objects  of  government,  to  which  I 
rejoice  to  see  that  you  have  turned  your  attention,  is  education. 
I  speak  not  of  college  education,  nor  of  academy  education, 
though  they  are  of  great  importance;  I  speak  of  free-school 
education,  common-school  education. 

Among  the  luminaries  in  the  sky  of  New  England,  the  burn 
ing  lights  which  throw  intelligence  and  happiness  on  her  people, 
the  first  and  most  brilliant  is  her  system  of  common  schools.  I 
congratulate  myself  that  my  first  speech  on  entering  public  life 
was  in  their  behalf.  Education,  to  accomplish  the  ends  of  good 
government,  should  be  universally  diffused.  Open  the  doors  of 
the  school-house  to  all  the  children  in  the  land.  Let  no  man 
have  the  excuse  of  poverty  for  not  educating  his  own  offspring. 
Place  the  means  of  education  within  his  reach,  and  if  they  re 
main  in  ignorance,  be  it  his  own  reproach.  If  one  object  of  the 
expenditure  of  your  revenue  be  protection  against  crime,  you 
could  not  devise  a  better  or  cheaper  means  of  obtaining  it. 
Other  nations  spend  their  money  in  providing  means  for  its  de 
tection  and  punishment,  but  it  is  the  principle  of  our  govern 
ment  to  provide  for  its  never  occurring.  The  one  acts  by  coer 
cion,  the  other  by  prevention.  On  the  diffusion  of  education 
among  the  people  rest  the  preservation  and  perpetuation  of  our 
free  institutions.  I  apprehend  no  danger  to  our  country  from  a 
foreign  foe.  The  prospect  of  a  war  with  any  powerful  nation 
is  too  remote  to  be  a  matter  of  calculation.  Besides,  there  is 
no  nation  on  earth  powerful  enough  to  accomplish  our  over 
throw.  Our  destruction,  should  it  come  at  all,  will  be  from 
another  quarter.  From  the  inattention  of  the  people  to  the  con 
cerns  of  their  government,  from  their  carelessness  and  negli 
gence,  I  must  confess  that  I  do  apprehend  some  danger.  I  fear 


404  RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 

that  they  may  place  too  implicit  a  confidence  in  their  public  ser. 
vants,  and  fail  properly  to  scrutinize  their  conduct ;  that  in  this 
way  they  may  be  made  the  dupes  of  designing  men,  and  be 
come  the  instruments  of  their  own  undoing.  Make  them  intel 
ligent,  and  they  will  be  vigilant ;  give  them  the  means  of  detect 
ing  the  wrong,  and  they  will  apply  the  remedy. 

The  gentleman  who  has  just  addressed  me  in  such  flattering, 
but  unmerited  terms,  has  been  pleased  to  make  kind  mention 
of  my  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  and  my  humble  efforts  in 
its  support.  I  claim  no  merit  on  that  account.  It  results  from 
my  sense  of  its  surpassing  excellences,  which  must  strike  every 
man  who  attentively  and  impartially  examines  it.  I  regard  it 
as  the  work  of  the  purest  patriots  and  wisest  statesmen  that 
ever  existed,  aided  by  the  smiles  of  a  benignant  Providence; 
for  when  we  regard  it  as  a  system  of  government  growing  out 
of  the  discordant  opinions  and  conflicting  interests  of  thirteen 
independent  States,  it  almost  appears  a  Divine  interposition  in 
our  behalf.  I  have  always,  with  the  utmost  zeal  and  the  mod 
erate  abilities  I  possess,  striven  to  prevent  its  infraction  in  the 
slightest  particular.  I  believed,  if  that  bond  of  union  were 
broken,  we  should  never  again  be  a  united  people.  Where, 
among  all  the  political  thinkers,  the  constitution-makers  and  the 
constitution-menders  of  the  day,  could  we  find  a  man  to  make 
us  another  ?  Who  would  even  venture  to  propose  a  reunion  ? 
Where  would  be  the  starting-point,  and  what  the  plan  ?  I  do 
not  expect  miracles  to  follow  each  other.  No  plan  could  be  pro 
posed  that  would  be  adopted ;  the  hand  that  destroys  the  Con 
stitution  rends  our  Union  asunder  for  ever. 

My  friend  has  been  pleased  to  remember,  in  his  address,  my 
humble  support  of  the  constitutional  right  of  Congress  to  im 
prove  the  navigation  of  our  great  internal  rivers,  and  to  construe* 
roads  through  the  different  States.  It  is  well  known  that  few 
persons  entertain  stronger  opinions  on  this  subject  than  myself. 
Believing  that  the  great  object  of  the  Union  is  to  secure  the 
general  safety  and  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  that  the 
Constitution  was  designed  to  point  out  the  means  of  accom 
plishing  these  ends,  I  have  always  been  in  favor  of  such  meas 
ures  as  I  deemed  for  the  general  benefit,  under  the  restrictions 
and  limitations  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  itself.  I  sup 
ported  them  with  my  voice,  and  my  vote,  not  because  they  were 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON.  405 

for  the  benefit  of  the  West,  but  because  they  were  for  the  bene 
fit  of  the  whole  country.  That  they  are  local  in  their  advan 
tages,  as  well  as  in  their  construction,  is  an  objection  that  has 
been  and  will  be  urged  against  every  measure  of  the  kind.  In 
a  country  so  widely  extended  as  ours,  so  diversified  in  its  inter 
ests  and  in  the  character  of  its  people,  it  is  impossible  that  the 
operation  of  any  measure  should  affect  all  alike.  Each  has  its 
own  peculiar  interest,  whose  advancement  it  seeks;  we  have 
the  sea-coast,  and  you  the  noble  river  that  flows  at  your  feet 
So  it  must  ever  be.  Go  to  the  smallest  government  in  the 
world,  the  republic  of  San  Marino,  in  Italy,  possessing  a  ter 
ritory  of  but  ten  miles  square,  and  you  will  find  its  citizens,  sep 
arated  but  by  a  few  miles,  having  some  interests  which,  on  ac 
count  of  local  situation,  are  separate  and  distinct.  There  is  not 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  a  plain,  five  miles  in  extent,  whose  in 
habitants  are  all  the  same  in  their  pursuits  and  pleasures.  Some 
will  live  on  a  creek,  others  near  a  hill,  which,  when  any  measure 
is  proposed  for  the  general  benefit,  will  give  rise  to  jarring  claims 
and  opposing  interests.  In  such  cases,  it  has  always  appeared 
to  me  that  the  point  to  be  examined  was,  whether  the  principle 
was  general.  If  the  principle  were  general,  although  the  appli 
cation  might  be  partial,  I  cheerfully  and  zealously  gave  it  my 
support.  When  an  objection  has  been  made  to  an  appropria 
tion  for  clearing  the  snags  out  of  the  Ohio  River,  I  have  answered 
it  with  the  question,  "  Would  you  not  vote  for  an  appropriation 
to  clear  the  Atlantic  Ocean  of  snags,  were  the  navigation  of 
your  coast  thus  obstructed  ?  The  people  of  the  West  contribute 
their  portion  of  the  revenue  to  fortify  your  sea-coast,  and  erect 
piers,  and  harbors,  and  light-houses,  from  which  they  derive  a 
remote  benefit,  and  why  not  contribute  yours  to  improve  the 
navigation  of  a  river  whose  commerce  enriches  the  whole  coun 
try?" 

It  may  be  expected,  fellow-citizens,  that  I  should  say  some 
thing  on  a  topic  which  agitates  and  distracts  the  public  mind, 
I  mean  the  deranged  state  of  the  currency,  and  the  general  stag 
nation  of  business.  In  giving  my  opinions  on  this  topic,  I  wish 
it  to  be  distinctly  understood,  that  I  force  them  on  no  man. 
I  am  an  independent  man,  speaking  to  independent  men.  I 
think  for  myself;  you,  of  course,  enjoy  and  exercise  the  same 
right.  I  cheerfully  concede  to  every  one  the  liberty  of  differing 


406  RECEPTION  AT  MADISON. 

with  me  in  sentiment,  readily  granting  that  he  has  as  good  a 
chance  of  being  right  as  myself,  perhaps  a  better.  But  I  have 
some  respect  for  my  character  as  a  public  man.  The  present 
state  of  things  has  grown  out  of  a  series  of  measures,  to  which 
I  have  been  in  uniform  opposition.  In  speaking  of  their  con 
sequences,  I  am  doing  but  justice  to  myself  in  showing  them  in 
justification  of  my  conduct.  I  am  performing  a  duty  to  my 
fellow-citizens,  who  have  a  right  to  know  the  opinions  of  every 
public  man.  The  present  state  of  things  is  unparalleled  in  the 
annals  of  our  country.  The  general  suspension  of  specie  pay 
ments  by  the  banks,  beginning  I  know  not  where,  and  ending 
I  know  not  where,  but  comprehending  the  whole  country,  has 
produced  wide-spread  ruin  and  confusion  through  the  land.  To 
you  the  scene  is  one  as  yet  of  apprehension ;  to  us,  of  deep  dis 
tress.  You  cannot  understand,  my  fellow-citizens,  nor  can  I 
describe  it  so  as  to  enable  you  to  understand,  the  embarrass 
ment  and  suffering  which  are  depressing  the  spirit  and  crushing 
the  energies  of  the  people  of  the  sea-girt  States  of  the  East. 
You  are  agriculturists,  you  produce  what  you  consume,  and  al 
ways  have  the  means  of  living  within  your  reach.  We  depend 
on  others  for  their  agricultural  productions ;  we  live  by  manu 
factures  and  commerce,  of  which  credit  is  the  lifeblood.  The 
destruction  of  credit  is  the  destruction  of  our  means  of  living. 
The  man  who  cannot  fulfil  his  daily  engagements,  or  with 
whom  others  fail  to  fulfil  theirs,  must  suffer  for  his  daily  bread. 
And  who  are  those  who  suffer  ?  ,  Not  the  rich,  for  they  can  gen 
erally  take  care  of  themselves.  Capital  is  ingenious  and  far- 
sighted,  ready  in  resources  and  fertile  in  expedients  to  shelter 
itself  from  impending  storms.  Shut  it  out  from  one  source  of 
increase,  and  it  will  find  other  avenues  of  profitable  investment. 
It  is  the  industrious,  working  part  of  the  community,  men 
whose  hands  have  grown  hard  by  holding  the  plough  and  pull 
ing  the  oar,  men  who  depend  on  their  daily  labor  and  their  daily 
pay,  who,  when  the  operations  of  trade  and  commerce  are 
checked  and  palsied,  have  no  prospect  for  themselves  and  their 
families  but  beggary  and  starvation,  —  it  is  these  who  suffer. 
All  this  has  been  attributed  to  causes  as  different  as  can  be  im 
agined  ;  over- trading,  over-buying,  over-selling,  over-speculating, 
over-production,  terms  which  I  acknowledge  I  do  not  very  well 
understand.  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  a  nation  can  be- 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON.  407 

come  poor  by  over-production,  producing  more  than  she  can 
sell  or  consume.  I  do  not  see  where  there  has  been  over-trad 
ing,  except  in  public  lands;  for  when  everything  else  was  up 
to  such  an  enormous  price,  and  the  public  land  tied  down  to 
one  dollar  and  a  quarter  an  acre,  who  would  not  have  bought  it 
if  he  could  ? 

These  causes  could  not  have  produced  all  those  consequences 
which  have  occasioned  such  general  lamentation.  They  must 
have  proceeded  from  some  other  source.  And  I  now  request 
you,  my  fellow-citizens,  to  bear  witness,  that  here,  in  this  good 
city,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  on  the  first  day  of  June,  1837, 
beneath  the  bright  sun  that  is  shining  upon  us,  I  declare  my 
conscientious  conviction  that  they  have  proceeded  from  the 
measures  of  the  general  government  in  relation  to  the  curren 
cy.  I  make  this  declaration  in  no  spirit  of  enmity  to  its  au 
thors  ;  I  follow  no  man  with  rebukes  or  reproaches.  To  repro 
bate  the  past  will  not  alleviate  the  evils  of  the  present.  It  is 
the  duty  of  every  good  citizen  to  contribute  his  strength,  how 
ever  feeble,  to  diminish  the  burden  under  which  a  people  groans, 
To  apply  the  remedy  successfully,  however,  we  must  first  ascer 
tain  the  causes,  character,  and  extent  of  the  evil. 

Let  us  go  back,  then,  to  its  origin.  Forty-eight  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution.  For  forty  years 
of  that  time  we  had  a  national  bank.  Its  establishment  origi 
nated  in  the  imperious  obligation  imposed  on  every  government 
to  furnish  its  people  with  a  circulating  medium  for  their  com 
merce.  No  matter  how  rich  the  citizen  may  be  in  flocks  and 
herds,  in  houses  and  lands,  if  his  government  does  not  furnish 
him  a  medium  of  exchange,  commerce  must  be  confined  to  the 
petty  barter  suggested  by  mutual  wants  and  necessities,  as  they 
exist  in  savage  life.  The  history  of  all  commercial  countries 
shows  that  .the  precious  metals  can  constitute  but  a  small  part 
of  this  circulating  medium.  The  extension  of  commerce  cre 
ates  a  system  of  credit;  the  transmission  of  money  from  one 
part  of  the  country  to  the  other  gives  birth  to  the  business  of 
exchange.  To  keep  the  value  of  this  medium  and  the  rates  of 
exchange  equal  and  certain,  was  imperiously  required  by  the 
necessities  of  the  times  when  the  bank  was  established.  Under 
the  old  confederacy,  each  of  the  thirteen  States  established  and 
regulated  its  own  money,  which  passed  for  its  full  value  within 


408  RECEPTIOJS   AT  MADISON. 

the  State,  and  was  useless  the  moment  it  crossed  the  State  bor 
der.  The  little  State  of  Rhode  Island,  for  instance,  (I  hope  no 
son  of  hers  present  will  take  offence  at  what  I  say,)  so  small 
that  an  Indiana  man  might  almost  cover  her  territory  with  his 
hand,  was  crowded  with  banks.  A  man  might  have  been  rich 
at  Providence,  but  before  he  could  travel  to  Boston,  forty  miles 
distant,  he  would  starve  for  want  of  money  to  pay  for  his  break 
fast. 

Had  this  state  of  things  continued,  some  of  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  would  have  been  of  no  force  or  virtue.  Of 
what  value  to  Congress  would  have  been  the  right  to  levy  taxes, 
imposts,  and  duties,  and  to  regulate  commerce  among  different 
States,  and  of  what  effect  or  consequence  the  prohibition  on  the 
different  States  of  levying  and  collecting  imposts,  if  each  and 
every  one  of  them  had  possessed  the  right  of  paying  her  taxes 
and  duties  in  a  currency  of  her  own,  which  would  not  pass  one 
hundred  miles,  perhaps,  from  the  bank  whence  it  was  issued  ? 
The  creation  of  a  national  bank  presented  the  surest  means  of 
remedying  these  evils,  and  accomplishing  one  of  the  principal 
objects  of  the  Constitution,  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  a  currency  whose  value  would  be  uniform  in  every  part  of  the 
country.  During  the  forty  years  it  existed,  under  the  two  char 
ters,  we  had  no  general  suspension  of  specie  payments,  as  at 
present.  We  got  along  well  with  it,  and  I  am  one  of  those 
who  are  disposed  to  let  well  alone.  I  am  content  to  travel 
along  the  good  old  turnpike  on  which  I  have  journeyed  before 
with  comfort  and  expedition,  without  turning  aside  to  try  a  new 
track.  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not  possess  that  soaring  self- 
respect,  that  lofty  confidence  in  my  own  political  sagacity  and 
foresight,  which  would  induce  me  to  set  aside  the  experience  of 
forty  years,  and  risk  the  ruin  of  the  country  for  the  sake  of  an 
experiment.  To  this"  is  all  the  distress  of  the  country  attributa 
ble.  This  has  caused  such  powerful  invasions  of  bank  paper, 
like  sudden  and  succeeding  nights  of  birds  of  prey  and  passage, 
and  the  rapid  disappearance  of  specie  at  its  approach.  You  all 
know  that  bank-notes  have  been  almost  as  plenty  as  the  leaves 
of  the  forest  in  the  summer.  But  of  what  value  are  they  to  the 
holder,  if  he  is  compelled  to  pay  his  debts  in  specie  ?  And  who 
can  be  expected  to  pay  his  debts  in  this  way,  when  the  gov 
ernment  has  withdrawn  the  specie  from  circulation  ? 


RECEPTION  AT  MADISON  409 

You  have  not  yet  felt  the  evil  in  its  full  extent.  It  is  mostly 
in  prospect,  and  you  are  watching  its  approach.  While  you  are 
endeavoring  to  guard  against  it,  strive  to  prevent  its  future  re 
currence.  As  you  would  hunt  down,  with  hound  and  horn,  the 
wolf  who  is  making  nightly  havoc  of  your  flocks  and  herds, 
pursue  and  keep  down  those  who  would  make  havoc  in  your 
business  and  property  by  experiments  on  our  currency. 

Although  the  country  has  bowed  beneath  the  pressure,  I  do 
not  fear  that  it  will  be  broken  down  and  prostrated  in  the  dust. 
Depress  them  as  it  may,  the  energy  and  industry  of  the  people 
will  enable  them  to  rise  again.  We  have  for  a  long  time  car 
ried  a  load  of  bad  government  on  our  shoulders,  and  we  are 
still  able  to  bear  up  under  it.  But  I  do  not  see  that,  for  that 
reason,  we  should  be  willing  and  eager  to  carry  it.  I  do  not 
see  why  it  should  prevent  us  from  wishing  to  lessen  it  as  much 
as  possible,  if  not  to  throw  it  off  altogether,  when  we  know  that 
we  can  get  along  so  much  easier  and  faster  without  it.  While 
we  are  exerting  ourselves  with  renewed  industry  and  economy 
to  recover  from  its  blighting  effects,  while  we  plough  the  land 
and  plough  the  sea,  let  us  hasten  the  return  of  things  to  their 
proper  state,  by  such  political  measures  as  will  best  accomplish 
the  desired  end.  Let  us  inform  our  public  servants  of  our  wish 
es,  and  pursue  such  a  course  as  will  compel  them  to  obey  us. 

In  conclusion,  my  fellow-citizens,  I  return  you  my  thanks  for 
the  patience  and  attention  with  which  you  have  listened  to  me, 
and  pray  the  beneficent  Giver  of  all  good,  that  he  may  keep  you 
under  the  shadow  of  his  wing,  and  continue  to  bless  yon.  wit* 
peace  and  prosperity. 


VOL.  i.  35 


PUBLIC  DIMEB  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


.  ON  the  return  of  Mr.  Webster  from  the  session  in  which  he  had  par 
ticularly  signalized  himself  by  the  delivery  of  his  masterly  speeches  on 
the  sub-treasury  bill,  and  in  reply  to  Mr.  Calhoun  (contained  in  a  subse 
quent  volume  of  this  collection),  a  large  number  of  his  fellow-citizens  of 
Boston  could  not  be  restrained  from  manifesting  their  sense  of  his  ex 
traordinary  efforts,  in  exhibiting  the  true  character  of  the  odious  sub- 
treasury  project,  and  in  procuring  its  ultimate  rejection  by  Congress.  He 
was  accordingly  invited  to  meet  them  at  a  public  dinner,  on  the  24th  of 
July,  1838.  More  than  fifteen  hundred  persons  attended  it,  every  ticket 
having  been  eagerly  taken  as  soon  as  issued.  Every  portion  of  the  Hall, 
floor  and  galleries,  was  filled.  The  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth 
(Hon.  Edward  Everett)  presided  at  the  table,  and  the  spirit  of  the  occa 
sion  and  of  the  company  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  remarks 
with  which  he  introduced  Mr.  Webster  to  the  assembly  :  — 

"  And  now,  fellow-citizens,"  said  he,  "  I  rise  to  discharge  the  most 
pleasing  part  of  my  duty,  which  I  fear  you  will  think  I  have  too  long 
postponed  ;  the  duty  which  devolves  on  me,  as  the  organ  of  your  feel 
ings  toward  our  distinguished  guest,  the  senior  Senator  of  the  Com 
monwealth.  And  yet,  fellow-citizens,  I  appeal  to  you,  that  I  have  ap 
proached  this  duty  through  the  succession  of  ideas  which  most  naturally 
conducts  our  minds  and  hearts  to  the  grateful  topic.  I  have  proposed  to 
you,  Our  country  and  its  prosperity.  Who  among  the  great  men,  his 
contemporaries,  has  more  widely  surveyed  and  comprehended  the  vari 
ous  interests  of  all  its  parts  ?  I  have  proposed,  The  Union  of  the  States. 
What  public  man  is  there  living,  whose  political  course  has  been  more 
steadily  consecrated  to  its  perpetuity  ?  I  have  proposed  to  you,  The  Con 
stitution.  And  who  of  our  statesmen,  from  the  time  of  its  framers,  has 
more  profoundly  investigated,  more  clearly  expounded,  more  powerfully 
vindicated  and  sustained  it  ?  But  these  topics  I  may  pass  over.  They 
are  matters  which  have  been  long  familiar  to  you  ;  they  need  not  any 
comment  from  me. 

"  The  events  of  the  last  year,  and  of  the  last  session  of  Congress,  and 
the  present  state  of  the  country,  invite  our  attention  more  particularly  to 
35* 


414  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

the  recent  efforts  of  our  distinguished  guest  on  the  subject  of  THE  CUR 
RENCY.  I  know  not  but  some  persons  may  think  that  undue  importance 
has  been  attached  to  the  questions  which  have  divided  parties  on  this  sub 
ject  ;  that  these  questions  are  not  so  vital  to  liberty  as  they  have  been  rep 
resented.  But  such  an  opinion  would  be  erroneous.  Undoubtedly  there 
are  countries,  not  free  ones,  in  which  money  questions,  as  connected  with 
the  government,  are  of  minor  consequence.  In  China,  in  Turkey,  in 
Persia,  I  presume  they  are  very  little  discussed.  In  these  countries  the 
great  question  is,  whether  a  man's  head  at  night  will  be  found  in  the 
same  pleasing  and  convenient  proximity  to  his  shoulders  that  it  was  in 
the  morning  ;  and  this  is  a  kind  of  previous  question,  which,  if  decided 
against  him,  cuts  off  all  others.  Under  those  arbitrary  governments  of 
Europe,  where  the  prince  takes  what  he  pleases,  and  when  he  pleases,  it 
is  of  very  little  moment  where  he  deposits  it,  on  its  way  from  the  pock 
ets  of  the  people  to  his  own.  But  it  was  remarked  by  Edmund  Burke, 
more  than  seventy  years,  ago,  that  in  England,  (and  a  fortiori  in  the 
United  States,  that  is,  under  constitutional  governments,)  the  great  strug 
gles  for  liberty  had  been  almost  always  money  questions,  and  on  this 
ground  he  excused  the  Americans  for  the  stand  they  took  in  opposition 
to  a  paltry  tax.  But,  most  certainly,  the  money  question,  as  it  has  been 
agitated  among  us,  is  vastly  more  important,  more  intimately  connected 
with  constitutional  liberty,  than  that  which  brought  on  the  Revolution. 
The  question  with  our  fathers  was  one  of  a  small  tax  ;  ours,  of  the  entire 
currency.  Theirs  concerned  three  pence  per  pound  on  tea,  illegally 
levied  ;  ours,  the  entire  currency  illegally  disposed  of,  the  entire  medium 
of  circulation  deranged,  and  for  a  period  annihilated,  the  whole  business 
of  the  country,  in  all  its  great  branches,  brought  under  the  control  of  the 
treasury.  The  noble  stand,  therefore,  taken  by  our  distinguished  Sena 
tor  in  this  controversy  has  been  upon  points  which  concern  the  dearest 
interests  of  the  people,  and  the  elemental  principles  of  the  government. 
"  In  fact,  I  know  not  that  a  policy  pan  be  imagined  more  at  war  with 
the  true  character  of  the  government,  than  that  which  he  has  been  called 
to  combat.  The  past  and  present  administrations,  relying  too  confi 
dently  on  the  popular  delusions  which  brought  them  into  office,  have 
systematically  defeated  one  of  the  great  original  objects  for  which  the 
Union  was  framed,  that  of  a  uniform  medium  of  commerce.  Nor  has 
the  manner  of  their  policy  been  less  objectionable  than  its  design.  They 
have  crowded  experiment  upon  experiment,  with  the  fatal  recklessness 
of  the  rash  engineer  who  urges  the  fires  in  his  furnaces  till  some  noble 
steamer  bursts  in  an  awful  explosion.*  Our  Senators  and  Representa 
tives,  and  their  associates,  could  they  have  forgotten  that  a  revered  Con 
stitution  and  a  beloved  country  were  the  chief  victims,  might  well  have 
folded  their  arms,  and  left  the  authors  of  the  calamity  to  extricate  them 
selves,  as  best  they  might,  from  the  ruin.  But  not  thus  have  they  under 
stood  their  duty ;  and  we  have  seen  them  with  admiration,  in  the  last 
days  of  the  session,  gallantly  putting  out  in  the  life-boat  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  with  an  eye  of  fire  at  the  top,  and  an  arm  of  iron  at  the  helm,  to 

*  The  disaster  of  the  Pulaski  occurred  about  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  these 
remarks. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  415 

cruise  about  on  the  boiling  waters,  and  pick  up  all  that  is  left  unde 
stroyed.  When  I  have  seen  the  adherents  of  the  administration  reject 
ing,  so  far  as  they  ventured,  the  salutary  measures  proposed  or  supported 
by  our  distinguished  guest  and  his  associates,  for  the  restoration  of  the 
currency  and  the  reestablishment  of  the  public  credit,  and  clinging  to 
all  that  events  have  spared  of  their  discredited  measures,  they  have 
seemed  to  me  to  resemble  the  sun-stricken  victims  of  a  moody  madness, 
who,  instead  of  thankfully  embracing  the  proffered  relief,  would  prefer 
to  float  about  on  the  weltering  waters,  clinging  to  the  broken  planks  and 
the  shivered  splinters  of  their  exploded  policy,  sure  as  they  are,  at  the 
very  best,  if  they  reach  solid  ground,  to  do  so  beneath  the  overwhelm 
ing  surge  of  popular  indignation. 

"  I  should  take  up  a  great  deal  more  time  than  belongs  to  me,  did  I 
attempt  even  to  sketch  the  distinguished  services  of  our  friend  and 
guest  in  this  constitutional  warfare.  They  are  impressed  on  your  mem 
ories,  and  on  your  hearts.  In  the  thickest  of  the  conflict,  his  plume,  like 
that  of  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  discerned  from  afar,  has  pointed 
out  the  spot  where,  to  use  his  own  language,  "  the  blows  fall  thickest 
and  hardest "  ;  and  there  he  has  been  found,  with  the  banner  of  the  Un 
ion  above  his  head,  and  the  flaming  cimeter  of  the  Constitution  in  his 
hand.  If  the  public  mind  has  been  thoroughly  awakened  to  the  incon 
sistency  of  the  government  policy  with  the  genius  of  our  institutions,  if, 
to  the  experience  we  have  all  had  of  the  pernicious  operation  of  this  pol 
icy,  there  has  been  added  a  clear  understanding  of  the  false  principles, 
as  well  of  constitutional  law  as  of  political  economy,  on  which  it  rests, 
how  much  of  this  is  not  fairly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  efforts  of  our  distin 
guished  guest,  efforts  never  stinted  in  or  out  of  Congress,  repeated 
in  every  form  which  can  persuade  the  judgment  or  influence  the  con 
duct  of  men,  never  less  than  cogent,  eloquent,  irrefutable,  but  in  the 
last  session  of  Congress,  perhaps  more  than  ever  before,  grand,  master 
ly,  and  overwhelming.  It  has  indeed  been  a  rare,  I  had  almost  said  a 
sublime  spectacle,  to  see  him,  unsupported  by  a  majority  in  either 
house,  opposed  by  the  entire  influence  of  the  government,  denounced 
by  the  administration  press  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other,  yet 
carrying  resolution  after  resolution  against  the  administration,  carrying 
them  alike  against  the  old  guard  and  the  new  recruits,  and,  notwithstand 
ing  their  abrupt  and  ill-compacted  alliance,  compelling  them,  in  spite  of 
themselves,  to  afford  some  relief  to  the  country. 

"  These  are  the  services,  fellow-citizens,  for  which  you  this  day  ten 
der  your  thanks  to  your  distinguished  guest.  These  are  the  services 
for  which,  Sir,  on  behalf  of  my  fellow-citizens,  I  thank  you ;  for  which 
they  thank  you  themselves.  Behold,  Sir,  how  they  rise  to  pay  you  a 
manly  homage.*  The  armies  of  Napoleon  could  not  coerce  it ;  the 
wealth  of  the  Indies  could  not  buy  it ;  but  it  is  freely,  joyously  paid, 
by  fifteen  hundred  freemen,  to  the  man  of  their  affections.  They  thank 
you  for  having  stood  by  them  in  these  dark  times,  —  at  all  times.  They 
thank  you,  because  they  think  they  are  beginning  to  feel  the  fruit  of 
your  exertions  in  the  daily  round  of  their  pursuits.  They  ascribe  it  in 

*  The  entire  audience  rose  at  this  moment. 


416  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

no  small  degree  to  you,  that  the  iron  grasp  of  the  government  policy  has 
been  relaxed  ;  that  its  bolts  and  chains,  relics  of  a  barbarous  age,  have 
been  shivered  as  soon  as  forged,  and  before  they  were  riveted  on  the 
necks  of  the  people.  They  thank  you  for  having  stood  by  the  Consti 
tution,  in  which  their  all  of  human  hope  for  themselves  and  their  chil 
dren  is  enshrined.  They  thank  you  as  one  of  themselves  ;  and  because 
they  know  that  your  affections  are  with  the  people  from  which  you 
sprung.  They  thank  you  because  you  have  at  all  times  shown,  that,  as 
the  Whig  blood  of  the  Revolution  circles  in  your  veins,  the  Whig  prin 
ciples  of  the  Revolution  are  imprinted  on  your  heart.  They  thank  you 
for  the  entire  manliness  of  your  course  ;  that  you  have  never  joined  the 
treacherous  cry  of  '  the  hatred  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,'  —  a  cry 
raised  by  artful  men,  who  think  to  flatter  the  people,  while  in  reality 
they  are  waging  war  against  the  people's  business,  the  people's  prosper 
ity,  and  the  people's  Constitution.  They  are  willing  that  this  day's 
offering  should  be  remembered,  when  all  this  mighty  multitude  shall 
have  passed  from  the  stage.  When  that  day  shall  have  arrived,  history 
will  have  written  your  name  on  one  of  her  brightest  pages  ;  fame  will 
have  encircled  your  bust  with  her  greenest  laurels  ;  but  neither  history 
nor  fame  will  have  paid  you  a  truer,  heartier  tribute,  than  that  which 
now,  beneath  the  arches  of  this  venerable  hall,  in  the  approving  pres 
ence  of  these  images  of  our  canonized  fathers,  is  tendered  you  by  this 
great  company  of  your  fellow-citizens. 

"  I  give  you,  Gentlemen,  — 

"  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  —  the  statesman  and  the  man  ;  whose  name  is 
engraven  alike  on  the  pillars  of  the  Constitution  and  the  hearts  of  his 
fellow-citizens.  He  is  worthy  of  that  place  in  the  councils  of  the  na 
tion  which  he  fills  in  the  affections  of  the  people." 

Mr.  Webster  then  rose,  amidst  enthusiastic  cheering,  and  addressed 
the  meeting  in  the  following  speech. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.' 


GENTLEMEN  :  —  I  shall  be  happy  indeed,  if  the  state  of  mj 
health  and  the  condition  of  my  voice  shall  enable  me  to  express, 
in  a  few  words,  my  deep  and  heartfelt  gratitude  for  this  expres 
sion  of  your  approbation.  If  public  life  has  its  cares  and  its 
trials,  it  has  occasionally  its  consolations  also.  Among  these, 
one  of  the  greatest,  and  the  chief,  is  the  approbation  of  those 
whom  we  have  honestly  endeavored  to  serve.  This  cup  of  con 
solation  you  have  now  administered,  —  full,  crowned,  abundant 
ly  overflowing. 

It  is  my  chief  desire  at  this  time,  in  a  few  spontaneous  and 
affectionate  words,  to  render  you  the  thanks  of  a  grateful  heart. 
When  I  lately  received  your  invitation  in  New  York,  nothing 
was  farther  from  my  thoughts  or  expectations,  than  that  I  should 
meet  such  an  assembly  as  I  now  behold  in  Boston. 

But  I  was  willing  to  believe  that  it  was  not  meant  merely  as 
a  compliment,  which  it  was  expected  would  be  declined,  but  that 
it  was  in  truth  your  wish,  at  the  close  of  the  labors  of  a  long 
session  of  Congress,  that  I  should  meet  you  in  this  place,  that 
we  might  mingle  our  mutual  congratulations,  and  that  we  might 
enjoy  together  one  happy,  social  hour. 

The  president  of  this  assembly  has  spoken  of  the  late  session 
as  having  been  not  only  long,  but  arduous ;  and,  in  some  re 
spects,  it  does  deserve  to  be  so  regarded.  I  may  indeed  say. 
that,  in  an  experience  of  twenty  years  of  public  life,  I  have  neve, 
yet  encountered  labors  or  anxieties  such  as  this  session  broughv 
with  it. 

*  Speech  delivered  at  a  Public  Dinner  in  Faneuil  Hall,  given  by  the  Citizens 
of  Boston  to  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  Close  of  the  Session  of  Congress,  on  the  24th 
of  July,  1838. 


418  PUBLIC   DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

With  a  short  intermission  in  the  autumn,  so  short  as  not  to 
allow  the  more  distant  members  to  visit  their  homes,  we  have 
been  in  continual  session  from  the  early  part  of  September  to 
the  9th  of  July,  a  period  of  ten  months.*  On  our  part,  during 
this  whole  time,  we  have  been  contending  in  minorities  against 
majorities ;  majorities,  indeed,  not  to  be  relied  on  for  all  meas 
ures,  as  the  event  has  proved,  but  still  acknowledged  and 
avowed  majorities,  professing  general  attachment  and  support 
to  the  measures,  and  to  the  men,  of  the  administration.  My 
own  object,  and  that  of  those  with  whom  I  have  had  the  honor 
to  act,  has  been  steady  and  uniform.  That  object  was,  to  resist 
new  theories,  new  schemes,  new  and  dangerous  projects,  until 
time  could  be  gained  for  their  consideration  by  the  people. 
This  was  our  great  purpose,  and  its  accomplishment  required 
no  slight  effort.  It  was  the  commencement  of  a  new  Congress. 
The  organization  of  the  two  houses  showed  clear  and  decisive 
administration  majorities.  The  administration  itself  was  new, 
and  had  come  into  its  fresh  power  with  something  of  the  popular 
ity  of  that  which  preceded  it.  It  was  no  child's  play,  therefore, 
to  resist,  successfully,  its  leading  measures,  for  so  long  a  period  as 
should  allow  time  for  an  effectual  appeal  to  the  people,  pressed, 
as  those  measures  were,  with  the  utmost  zeal  and  assiduity. 

The  president  of  the  day  has  alluded  in  a  very  flattering 
manner  to  my  own  exertions  and  efforts,  made  at  different 
times,  in  connection  with  the  leading  topics.  But  I  claim  no 
particular  merit  for  myself.  In  what  I  have  done,  I  have  only 
acted  with  others.  I  have  acted,  especially,  with  my  most  esti 
mable,  able,  and  excellent  colleague,f  and  with  the  experienced 
and  distinguished  men  who  form  the  delegation  of  Massachu 
setts  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  delegation  of  which  any 
State  might  be  justly  proud.  We  have  acted  together,  as  men 
holding,  in  almost  all  cases,  common  opinions,  and  laboring  for 
a  common  end.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  have  the  honor 
of  seeing  so  many  of  the  Representatives  of  the  State  in  Con 
gress  here  to-day ;  but  I  must  not  be  prevented,  even  by  their 
presence,  from  bearing  my  humble  but  hearty  testimony  to  the 

*  An  extra  session  of  Congress  had  been  called  by  President  Van  Buren,  in 
September,  1837,  in  consequence  of  the  general  suspension  of  specie  payments 
by  the  banks. 

t  Hon.  John  Davis. 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  419 

fidelity  and  ability  with  which  they  have,  in  this  arduous  strug 
gle,  performed  their  public  duties.  The  crisis  has,  indeed,  de 
manded  the  efforts  of  all ;  and  we  of  Massachusetts,  while  we 
hope  we  have  done  our  duty,  have  done  it  only  in  concurrence 
with  other  Whigs,  whose  zeal,  ability,  and  exertions  can  never 
be  too  much  commended. 

This  is  not  an  occasion  in  which  it  is  fit  or  practicable  to  dis 
cuss  very  minutely,  and  at  length,  the  questions  which  have  been 
chiefly  agitated  during  this  long  and  laborious  session  of  Con 
gress.  Yet,  so  important  is  the  great  and  general  question, 
which,  for  the  last  twelve  or  fifteen  months,  has  been  presented 
to  the  consideration  of  the  legislature,  that  I  deem  it  proper, 
on  this,  as  on  all  occasions,  to  state,  at  the  risk  of  some  repeti 
tion,  perhaps,  what  is  the  nature  of  that  important  question, 
and  briefly  to  advert  to  some  of  the  circumstances  in  which  it 
had  its  origin. 

Whatever  subordinate  questions  may  have  been  raised  touch 
ing  a  sub-treasury,  or  a  constitutional  treasury,  or  a  treasury  in 
one,  or  in  another,  or  in  yet  a  third  form,  I  take  the  question, 
the  plain,  the  paramount,  the  practical  question,  to  be  this ; 
namely,  whether  it  be  among  the  powers  and  the  duties  of 
Congress  to  take  any  further  care  of  the  national  currency  than 
to  regulate  the  coinage  of  gold  and  silver.  That  question  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  all.  Other  questions,  however  multiplied 
or  varied,  have  but  grown  out  of  that. 

If  government  is  bound  to  take  care  that  there  is  a  good  cur 
rency  for  all  the  country,  then,  of  course,  it  will  have  a  good  cur 
rency  for  itself,  and  need  take  no  especial  pains  to  provide  for 
itself  any  thing  peculiar.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  government 
is  at  liberty  to  abandon  the  general  currency  to  its  fate,  without 
concern  and  without  remorse,  then,  from  necessity,  it  must  take 
care  of  itself ;  amidst  the  general  wreck  of  currency  and  credit, 
it  must  have  places  of  resort  and  a  system  of  shelter ;  it  must 
have  a  currency  of  its  own,  and  modes  of  payment  and  dis 
bursement  peculiar  to  itself.  It  must  burrow  and  hide  itself  in 
sub-treasury  vaults.  Scorning  credit,  and  having  trust  in  no 
body,  it  must  grasp  metallic  money,  and  act  as  if  nothing  repre 
sented,  or  could  represent,  property,  which  could  not  be  counted, 
paid  piece  by  piece,  or  weighed  in  the  scales,  and  made  to  ring 
upon  the  table ;  or  it  must  resort  to  special  deposits  in  banks. 


420  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

even  in  those  banks  whose  conduct  has  been  so  loudly  de 
nounced  as  flagitious  and  criminal,  treacherous  to  the  govern 
ment,  and  fraudulent  towards  the  people.  All  these  schemes 
and  contrivances  are  but  the  consequences  of  the  general  doc 
trine  which  the  administration  has  advanced,  and  attempted  to 
recommend  to  the  country ;  that  is,  that  Congress  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  currency,  beyond  the  mere  matter  of  coinage, 
except  to  provide  for  itself.  How  such  a  notion  should  come  to 
be  entertained,  at  this  day,  may  well  be  a  matter  of  wonder  for 
the  wise ;  since  it  is  a  truth  capable  of  the  clearest  demonstra 
tion,  that,  from  the  first  day  of  the  existence  of  the  Constitution, 
from  the  moment  when  a  practical  administration  of  govern 
ment  drew  a  first  breath  under  its  provisions,  the  superintend 
ence  and  care  over  the  currency  of  the  country  have  been 
admitted  to  be  among  the  clear  and  unquestioned  powers  and 
duties  of  Congress.  This  was  the  opinion  in  Washington's 
time,  and  his  administration  acted  upon  it,  vigorously  and  suc 
cessfully.  And  in  Mr.  Madison's  time,  when  the  peculiar  cir 
cumstances  of  the  country  again  brought  up  the  subject,  and 
gave  it  new  importance,  it  was  held  to  be  the  exclusive,  or  at 
least  the  paramount  and  unquestioned,  right  of  Congress  to  take 
care  of  the  currency ;  to  restore  it  when  depreciated ;  to  see  that 
there  was  a  sound,  convertible  paper  circulation,  suited  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  country,  and  having  equal  value,  and  the 
same  credit,  in  all  parts  of  it.  This  was  Mr.  Madison's  judg 
ment.  He  acted  upon  it ;  and  both  houses  of  Congress  con 
curred  with  him.  But  if  we  now  quote  Mr.  Madison's  senti 
ments,  we  get  no  reply  at  all  from  the  friends  of  the  government 
system.  We  may  read  his  messages  of  1815  and  1816  as  often 
as  we  please.  No  man  answers  them,  and  yet  the  party  of  the 
administration,  professing  to  belong  to  Mr.  Madison's  political 
school,  acts  upon  directly  opposite  principles. 

Now,  what  has  brought  about  this  state  of  things  ?  What 
has  caused  this  attempt,  now  made,  at  the  end  of  half  a  cen 
tury,  to  change  a  great  principle  of  administration,  and  to  sur 
render  a  most  important  power  of  the  government  ?  Gentlemen, 
it  has  been  a  crisis  of  party,  not  of  the  country,  which  has  given 
birth  to  these  new  sentiments.  The  tortuous  windings  of  party 
policy  have  conducted  us,  and  nothing  else  could  well  have  con 
ducted  us,  to  such  a  point.  Nothing  but  party  pledges,  nothing 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  421 

but  courses  of  political  conduct  entered  upon  for  party  pur 
poses,  and  pursued  from  necessary  regard  to  personal  and  party 
consistency,  could  so  far  have  pushed  the  government  out  of  its 
clear  and  well-trodden  path  of  constitutional  duty.  From  Gen 
eral  Washington's  presidency  to  the  last  hour  of  the  late  Presi 
dent's,  both  the  government  and  the  country  have  supposed 
Congress  to  be  clothed  with  the  general  duty  of  protecting  the 
currency,  either  as  an  inference  from  the  coinage  power  or 
from  the  obvious  and  incontestable  truth,  that  the  regulation  of 
the  currency  is  naturally  and  plainly  a  branch  of  the  commercial 
power.  General  Jackson  himself  was  behind  no  one  of  his 
predecessors  in  asserting  this  power,  and  in  acknowledging  the 
corresponding  duty.  We  all  know  that  his  very  first  complaint 
against  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States  was,  that  it  had  not 
fulfilled  the  expectation  of  the  country,  by  furnishing  for  the  use 
of  the  people  a  sound  and  uniform  currency.  There  were  many 
persons,  certainly,  who  did  not  agree  with  him  in  his  opinions 
respecting  the  bank  and  the  effects  of  its  agency  on  the  coun 
try  ;  but  it  was  expressly  on  the  ground  of  this  alleged  failure 
of  the  bank,  that  he  undertook  what  was  called  the  great  reform. 
There  are  those,  again,  who  think  that  of  this  attempted  reform 
he  made  a  very  poor  and  sorry  business ;  but  still  the  truth  is, 
that  he  undertook  this  reform  for  the  very  purpose  professed  and 
avowed,  that  he  might  fulfil  better  than  it  had  yet  been  fulfilled 
the  duty  of  government  in  furnishing  the  people  with  a  good 
currency.  The  President  thought  that  the  currency,  in  1832 
and  1833,  was  not  good  enough ;  that  the  people  had  a  right  to 
expect  a  better;  and  to  meet  this  expectation,  he  began  what  he 
himself  called  his  experiment.  He  said  the  currency  was  not 
so  sound,  and  so  uniform,  as  it  was  the  duty  of  government  to 
make  it;  and  he  therefore  undertook  to  give  us  a  currency  more 
sound  and  more  uniform.  And  now,  Gentlemen,  let  us  recur 
shortly  to  what  followed ;  for  there  we  shall  find  the  origin  of 
the  present  constitutional  notions  and  dogmas.  Let  us  see 
what  has  changed  the  Constitution  in  this  particular. 

In  1833,  the  public  deposits  were  removed,  by  an  act  of  the 
President  himself,  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
placed  in  certain  State  banks,  under  regulations  prescribed  by 
the  executive  alone.  This  was  the  experiment.  The  utmost 
confidence,  indeed,  an  arrogant  and  intolerant  confidence,  was 

VOL.  i.  36 


422  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

entertained  and  expressed  of  its  success ;  and  all  who  doubted 
were  regarded  as  blind  bigots  to  a  national  bank.  When  the 
experiment  was  put  into  operation,  it  was  proclaimed  that  its 
success  was  found  to  be  complete.  Down  to  the  very  close  of 
General  Jackson's  administration,  we  heard  of  nothing  but  the 
wonderful  success  of  the  experiment.  It  was  declared,  from  the 
highest  official  sources,  that  the  State  banks,  used  as  banks  of 
deposit,  had  not  only  shown  themselves  perfectly  competent 
to  fulfil  the  duties  of  fiscal  agents  to  government,  but  also 
that  they  had  sustained  the  currency,  and  facilitated  the  great 
business  of  internal  exchanges,  with  the  most  singular  and 
gratifying  success,  and  better  than  the  same  thing  had  been 
done  before.  In  all  this  glow  and  fervor  of  self-commendation, 
the  late  administration  went  out  of  office,  having  bequeathed 
the  experiment,  with  all  its  blushing  honors  and  rising  glories,  to 
its  successor.  But  a  frost,  a  nipping  frost,  was  at  hand.  Two 
months  after  General  Jackson  had  retired,  the  banks  suspended 
specie  payments,  deposit  banks  and  all ;  a  universal  embarrass 
ment  smote  down  the  business  and  industry  of  the  country ;  the 
treasury  was  left  without  a  dollar,  and  the  brilliant  glory  of  the 
experiment  disappeared  in  gloom  and  thick  darkness!  And 
now,  Gentlemen,  came  the  change  of  sentiments,  now  came 
the  new  reading  of  the  Constitution.  A  national  bank  had  al 
ready  been  declared  by  the  party  to  be  unconstitutional,  the 
State  bank  system  had  failed,  and  what  more  could  be  done  ? 
What  other  plan  was  to  be  devised  ?  How  could  the  duty  of 
government  over  the  currency  be  now  performed  ?  The  admin 
istration  had  decried  a  national  bank,  and  it  now  felt  bound  to 
denounce  all  State  institutions;  and  what,  therefore,  could  it 
do  ?  The  whole  party  had  laid  out  its  entire  strength,  in  an 
effort  to  render  the  late  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  any 
bank  of  the  United  States,  unpopular  and  odious.  It  had  pro 
nounced  all  such  institutions  to  be  dangerous,  anti-republican, 
and  monarchical.  It  had,  especially,  declared  a  national  bank 
to  be  plainly  and  clearly  unconstitutional.  Now,  Gentlemen,  I 
have  nothing  to  say  of  the  diffidence  and  modesty  of  men,  who, 
without  hesitation  or  blushing,  set  up  their  own  favorite  opin 
ions  on  a  question  of  this  kind  against  the  judgment  of  the 
government  and  the  judgment  of  the  country,  maintained  for 
fifty  years.  I  will  only  remark,  that,  if  we  were  to  find  men  act- 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEU1L  HALL.  433 

ing  thus  in  their  own  affairs,  if  we  should  find  them  disposing 
of  their  own  interests,  or  making  arrangements  for  their  own 
property,  in  contempt  of  rules  which  they  knew  the  legislative 
and  the  judicial  authorities  had  all  sanctioned  for  half  a  century, 
we  should  be  very  likely  to  think  them  out  of  .their  heads.  Yet 
this  ground  had  been  taken  against  the  late  bank,  and  against 
all  national  banks;  and  it  could  not  be  surrendered  without 
apparent  and  gross  inconsistency.  What,  then,  I  ask  again, 
was  the  administration  to  do  ?  You  may  say,  it  should  have 
retracted  its  error,  it  should  have  seen  the  necessity  of  a  na 
tional  institution,  and  yielded  to  the  general  judgment  of  the 
country. 

But  that  would  have  required  an  effort  of  candor  and  mag 
nanimity,  of  which  all  men  are  not  capable.  Besides,  there 
were  open,  solemn,  public  pledges  in  the  way.  This  commit 
ment  of  the  party  against  a  national  bank,  and  the  disastrous 
results  of  its  experiment  on  the  State  institutions,  brought  the 
party  into  a  difficulty,  from  which  it  seemed  to  have  no  es 
cape,  but  in  shifting  off,  altogether,  the  duty  of  taking  care  of 
the  currency.  I  was  at  Wheeling,  in  Virginia,  in  May  of  last 
year,  when  the  banks  suspended  payment ;  and,  at  the  risk  of 
some  imputation  of  bad  taste,  I  will  refer  to  observations  of 
mine  made  then,  to  the  citizens  of  that  town,  and  published,  in 
regard  to  the  questions  which  that  event  would  necessarily  bring 
before  the  country.*  I  saw  at  once  that  we  were  at  the  com 
mencement  of  a  new  era,  and  that  a  controversy  must  arise, 
which  would  greatly  excite  the  community. 

No  sooner  had  the  State  banks  suspended  specie  payments, 
and  among  the  rest  those  which  were  depositories  of  the  govern 
ment,  than  a  cry  of  fraud  and  treachery  was  raised  against  them, 
with  no  better  reason,  perhaps,  than  existed  for  that  loud,  and 
boisterous,  and  boastful  confidence,  with  which  the  late  admin 
istration  had  spoken  of  their  capacity  of  usefulness,  and  had 
assured  the  country  that  its  experiment  could  not  fail.  But 
whether  the  suspension  by  the  banks  was  a  matter  of  necessity 
with  them,  or  not,  the  administration,  after  it  had  happened,  see 
ing  itself  now  shut  out  from  the  use  of  all  banks  by  its  own 
declared  opinions  and  the  results  of  its  own  policy,  and  seeing 

*  See  the  Speech  above,  page  383. 


424  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

no  means  at  hand  for  making  another  attempt  at  reforming  the 
currency,  turned  a  short  corner,  and  in  all  due  form  denied  that 
the  government  had  any  duty  of  the  kind  to  discharge.  From 
the  time  of  the  veto  of  the  bank  charter,  in  1832,  the  administra 
tion  had  been  like  a  man  who  had  voluntarily  deserted  a  safe 
bottom,  on  deep  waters,  and,  having  in  vain  sought  to  support 
himself  by  laying  hold  on  one  and  another  piece  of  floating  tim 
ber,  chooses  rather  to  go  down  than  to  seek  safety  in  returning 
to  what  he  has  abandoned. 

Seeing  that  it  had  deprived  itself  of  the  common  means  of 
regulating  the  currency,  it  now  denied  its  obligation  to  do  so ; 
declared  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  currency  beyond  coinage; 
that  it  would  take  care  of  the  revenues  of  the  government,  and 
as  for  the  rest,  the  people  must  look  out  for  themselves.  This 
decision  thus  evidently  grew  out  of  party  necessity.  Having 
deprived  themselves  of  the  ordinary  and  constitutional  means  of 
performing  their  duty,  they  sought  to  avoid  the  responsibility  by 
declaring  that  there  was  no  such  duty  to  perform.  They  have 
looked  further  into  the  Constitution,  and  examined  it  by  daylight 
and  by  moonlight,  and  cannot  find  any  such  duty  or  obligation. 
Though  General  Jackson  saw  it  very  plainly,  during  the  whole 
course  of  his  presidency,  it  has  now  vanished,  and  the  new  com 
mentators  can  nowhere  discern  a  vestige  of  it.  The  present 
administration,  indeed,  stood  pledged  to  tread  in  the  steps  of  its 
predecessor ;  but  here  was  one  footprint  which  it  could  not,  or 
would  not,  occupy,  or  one  stride  too  long  for  it  to  take.  The 
message,  I  had  almost  said  the  fatal  message,  communicated  to 
Congress  in  September,  contained  a  formal  disavowal,  by  the 
administration,  of  all  power  under  the  Constitution  to  regulate 
the  general  actual  currency  of  the  country. 

The  President  says,  in  that  message,  that  if  he  refrains  from 
suggesting  to  Congress  any  specific  plan  for  regulating  the  ex 
changes,  relieving  mercantile  embarrassments,  or  interfering  with 
the  ordinary  operations  of  foreign  or  domestic  c6mmerce,  it  is 
from  the  conviction  that  such  measures  are  not  within  the  con 
stitutional  provision  of  government. 

How  all  this  could  be  said,  when  the  Constitution  expressly 
gives  to  Congress  the  power  to  regulate  commerce,  both  for 
eign  and  domestic,  I  cannot  conceive.  But  the  Constitution 
\ras  not  to  be  trifled  with,  and  the  people  are  not  to  be  trifled 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  425 

with.  The  country,  I  believe,  by  a  great  majority,  is  of  opin 
ion  that  this  duty  does  belong  to  government,  and  ought  to 
be  exercised.  All  the  new  expounders  have  not  been  able  to 
erase  this  general  power  over  commerce,  and  all  that  belongs  to 
commerce.  Their  fate,  in  this  respect,  is  like  that  of  him  in  an 
cient  story.  While  endeavoring  to  tear  up  and  rend  asunder 
the  Constitution,  its  strong  fibres  have  recoiled,  and  caught  them 
in  the  cleft.  They  experience 

"  Milo's  fearful  end, 
Wedged  in  the  timber  which  they  strove  to  rend." 

Gentlemen,  this  constitutional  power  can  never  be  surrendered. 
We  may  as  well  give  up  the  whole  commercial  power  at  once, 
and  throw  every  thing  connected  with  it  back  upon  the  States. 
If  Congress  surrender  the  power,  to  whom  shall  it  pass,  or  where 
shall  it  be  lodged  ?  Shall  it  be  left  to  six-and-twenty  different 
legislatures  ?  To  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  unconnected 
State  banks?  No,  Gentlemen,  to  allow  that  authority  to  bo 
surrendered  would  be  to  abandon  the  vessel  of  state,  withoul; 
pilot  or  helm,  and  to  suffer  her  to  roll,  darkling,  down  the  current; 
of  her  fate. 

For  the  sake  of  avoiding  all  misapprehensions  on  this  most 
important  subject,  I  wish  to  state  my  own  opinion,  clearly,  and 
in  few  words.  I  have  never  said,  that  it  is  an  indispensable 
duty  in  Congress,  under  all  circumstances,  to  establish  a  na 
tional  bank.  No  such  duty,  certainly,  is  created  by  the  Consti 
tution,  in  express  terms.  I  did  not  say  what  particular  measures 
are  enjoined  by  the  Constitution,  in  this  respect.  Congress  has 
its  discretion,  and  is  left  to  its  own  judgment,  as  to  the  means 
most  proper  to  be  employed.  But  I  say  the  general  duty  does 
exist. 

I  maintain  that  Congress  is  bound  to  take  care,  by  some 
proper  means,  to  secure  a  good  currency  for  the  people ;  and  that, 
while  this  duty  remains  unperformed,  one  great  object  of  the 
Constitution  is  not  attained.  If  we  are  to  have  as  many  differ 
ent  currencies  as  there  are  States,  and  these  currencies  are  to  be 
liable  to  perpetual  fluctuation,  it  would  be  folly  to  say  that  we 
had  reached  that  security  and  uniformity  in  commercial  regula 
tion,  which  we  know  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  Constitution  to 
establish. 

36* 


426  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

The  banks  may  all  resume  specie  payments  to-morrow,—* 
I  hope  they  will ;  but  how  much  will  this  resumption  accom 
plish  ?  It  will  doubtless  afford  good  local  currencies ;  but  will 
it  give  the  country  any  proper  and  safe  paper  currency,  of  equal 
and  universal  value  ?  Certainly  it  cannot,  and  will  not.  Will 
it  bring  back,  for  any  length  of  time,  exchanges  to  the  state 
they  were  in  when  there  was  a  national  currency  in  existence  ? 
Certainly,  in  my  opinion,  it  will  not.  We  may  heap  gold  bags 
upon  gold  bags,  we  may  create  what  securities,  in  the  con 
stitution  of  local  banks,  we  please,  but  we  cannot  give  to  any 
such  bank  a  character  that  shall  insure  the  receipt  of  its  notes, 
with  equal  readiness,  everywhere  throughout  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the 
St.  Lawrence.  Nothing  can  accomplish  this,  but  an  institution 
which  is  national  in  its  character.  The  people  desire  to  see, 
in  their  currency,  the  marks  of  this  nationality.  They  like  to 
see  the  spread  eagle,  and  where  they  see  that  they  have  con 
fidence. 

Who,  if  he  will  look  at  the  present  state  of  things,  is  not  wise 
enough  to  see  that  there  is  much  and  deep  cause  for  fear  in  re 
gard  to  the  future,  unless  the  government  will  take  the  subject 
of  currency  under  its  own  control,  as  it  ought  to  do.  For  one,  I 
think  I  see  trouble  ahead,  and  I  look  for  effectual  prevention  and 
remedy  only  to  a  just  exercise  of  the  powers  of  Congress.  I 
look  not  without  apprehension  upon  the  creation  of  numerous 
and  powerful  State  institutions,  full  of  competition  and  rivalry, 
and  under  no  common  control.  I  look  for  other  and  often- 
repeated  expansions  of  paper  circulation,  inflations  of  trade,  and 
general  excess ;  and  then,  again,  for  other  violent  ebbings  of  the 
swollen  flood,  ending  in  other  suspensions.  I  see  no  steadiness, 
no  security,  till  the  government  of  the  United  States  shall  fulfil 
its  constitutional  duty.  I  shall  be  disappointed,  certainly,  if,  for 
any  length  of  time,  the  benefits  of  a  sound  and  uniform  convert 
ible  paper  currency  can  be  enjoyed,  while  the  whole  subject  is 
left  to  six-and-twenty  States,  and  to  eight  hundred  local  banks, 
all  anxious  for  the  use  of  money  and  the  use  of  credit  in  the 
highest  degree. 

As  I  have  already  said,  these  sub-treasury  schemes  are  but 
contrivances  for  getting  away  from  a  disagreeable  duty.  And, 
after  all,  there  are  scarcely  any  two  of  the  friends  of  the  admin- 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  427 

istratlon  who  can  agree  upon  the  same  sub-treasury  scheme. 
Each  has  a  plan  of  his  own.  One  man  requires  that  all 
banks  shall  be  discarded,  and  nothing  but  gold  and  silver  shall 
be  received  for  revenue.  Another  will  exclaim,  "  That  won't  do ; 
that 's  not  my  thunder."  Another  would  prohibit  all  the  small 
notes,  and  another  would  banish  all  the  large  ones.  Another  is 
for  a  special  deposit  scheme ;  for  making  the  banks  sub-treasu 
ries  and  depositories ;  for  making  sub-treasuries  of  the  broken, 
rotten,  treacherous  banks ;  for  taking  bank-notes,  tying  them  up 
with  red  strings,  depositing  them  in  the  vaults,  and  paying  them 
out  again. 

It  has  been  the  proposition  of  the  administration  to  separate 
the  money  of  the  government  from  the  money  of  the  people ;  to 
secure  a  good  medium  of  payments,  for  the  use  of  the  treasury, 
in  collecting  and  disbursing  revenue,  and  to  take  no  care  of  the 
general  circulation  of  the  country.  This  is  the  sum  of  its  policy. 
Looking  upon  this  whole  scheme  but  as  an  abandonment  of 
clear  constitutional  obligation,  I  have  opposed  it,  in  every  form 
in  which  it  has  been  presented.  My  object,  as  I  have  already 
said,  and  that  of  those  with  whom  I  acted,  has  been,  to  prevent 
the  sanction  of  all  or  any  of  these  new  projects,  by  authority  of 
law,  until  another  Congress  should  be  elected,  which  might  ex 
press  the  will  of  the  people  formed  after  the  present  state  of 
things  arose.  In  this  object  we  have  succeeded.  If  we  have 
done  little  positive  good,  we  have  at  least  prevented  the  intro 
duction  and  establishment  of  new  theories  and  new  contri 
vances,  and  we  have  preserved  the  Constitution,  in  this  respect, 
entire.  No  surrender  or  abandonment  of  important  powers  is, 
as  yet,  indorsed  on  the  parchment  of  that  instrument.  No  new 
clause  is  appended  to  it,  making  its  provisions  a  mere  non  ob- 
stante  to  executive  discretion.  It  has  been  snatched  from  the 
furnace.  From  this  furnace  of  party  contention,  heated  seven 
times  hotter  than  it  has  been  wont  to  be  heated,  the  Constitu 
tion  has  been  rescued,  and  we  may  hold  it  up  to  the  people  this 
day,  and  tell  them  that  even  the  smell  of  the  fire  is  not  upon  it. 

But  now,  Gentlemen,  a  stronger  arm  must  be  put  forth.  A 
mightier  guardianship  must  now  interfere.  Time  has  been 
gained  for  public  discussion  and  consideration,  and  the  great  re 
sult  is  now  with  the  people.  That  they  will  ultimately  decide 
right,  I  have  the  fullest  confidence.  Party  attachment  and  party 


428  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

patronage,  it  is  true,  may  do  much  to  delay  the  results  of  general 
opinion,  but  they  cannot  long  resist  the  convictions  of  a  whole 
people.  It  is  most  certain  that,  up  to  the  present  hour,  this  new 
policy  has  been  most  unfavorably  received.  State  after  State 
has  fallen  off  from  the  ranks  of  the  administration,  on  account 
of  its  promulgation,  and  of  the  persevering  attempt  to  raise 
upon  it  a  system  of  legal,  practical  administration.  The  mes 
sage  of  September  completed  the  list  of  causes  necessary  to 
produce  a  popular  revolution  in  sentiment  in  Maine,  Ohio,  New 
Jersey,  and  New  York.  Since  the  proposition  was  renewed,  at 
the  late  session,  we  have  witnessed  a  similar  revolution  in  Con 
necticut  and  Louisiana,  and  very  important  changes,  perhaps 
equivalent  to  revolutions,  in  the  strength  of  parties  in  other 
States.  There  is  little  reason  to  doubt,  if  all  the  electors  of  the 
country  could  be  polled  to-day,  that  a  great  and  decisive  major 
ity  would  be  found  against  all  this  strange  policy.  Yet,  Gen 
tlemen,  I  do  not  consider  the  question,  by  any  means,  as  de 
cided.  The  policy  is  not  abandoned.  It  is  to  be  persisted  in. 
Its  friends  look  for  a  reaction  in  public  opinion.  I  think  I  un 
derstand  their  hopes  and  expectations.  They  rely  on  this  re 
action.  Every  thing  is  to  be  accomplished  by  reaction.  A 
month  ago,  this  reaction  was  looked  for  to  show  itself  in  Louisi 
ana.  Altogether  disappointed  in  that  quarter,  the  friends  of 
the  policy  now  stretch  their  hopes  to  the  other  extremity  of  the 
Union,  and  look  for  it  in  Maine.  In  my  opinion,  Gentlemen, 
there  can  be  no  reaction  which  can  reconcile  the  people  of  this 
country  to  the  policy  at  present  pursued. 

There  must,  in  my  opinion,  be  a  change.  If  the  administra 
tion  will  not  change  its  course,  it  must  be  changed  itself.  But 
I  repeat,  that  the  decision  now  lies  with  the  people ;  and  in  that 
decision,  when  it  shall  be  fairly  pronounced,  I  shall  cheerfully 
acquiesce.  We  ought  to  address  ourselves,  on  this  great  and 
vital  question,  to  the  whole  people,  to  the  candid  and  intelligent 
of  all  parties.  We  should  exhibit  its  magnitude,  its  essential 
consequence  to  the  Constitution,  and  its  infinite  superiority  to 
all  ordinary  strifes  of  party.  We  may  well  and  truly  say,  that 
it  is  a  new  question ;  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  of  any 
party,  is  not  committed  on  it ;  and  it  is  our  duty  to  invoke  all 
true  patriots,  all  who  wish  for  the  well-being  of  the  government 
and  the  country,  to  resist  these  experiments  upon  the  Constitu- 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL.  429 

tion,  and  this  wild  and  strange  departure  from  our  hitherto 
approved  and  successful  policy. 

At  the  same  time,  Gentlemen,  while  we  thus  invoke  aid  from 
all  quarters,  we  must  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  deceived.  We 
must  yield  to  no  expedients,  to  no  schemes  and  projects  un 
known  to  the  Constitution,  and  alien  to  our  own  history  and 
our  habits.  We  are  to  be  saved,  if  saved  at  all,  in  the  Consti 
tution,  not  out  of  it.  None  can  aid  us,  none  can  aid  the  country, 
by  any  thing  in  the  nature  of  mere  political  project,  nor  can  any 
devices  supply  the  place  of  regular  constitutional  administration. 
It  was  to  prevent,  or  to  remedy,  such  a  state  of  things  as  now 
exists,  that  the  Constitution  was  formed  and  adopted.  The 
time  when  there  is  a  disordered  currency,  and  a  distracted  com 
merce,  is  the  very  time  when  its  agency  is  required ;  and  I  hope 
those  who  wish  for  a  restoration  of  general  prosperity  will  look 
steadily  to  the  light  which  the  Constitution  sheds  on  the  path 
of  duty. 

As  to  you  and  me,  fellow-citizens,  our  course  is  not  doubtful. 
However  others  may  decide,  we  hold  on  to  the  Constitution, 
and  to  all  its  powers,  as  they  have  been  authentically  expounded, 
and  practically  and  successfully  experienced,  for  a  long  period 
Our  interests,  our  habits,  our  affections,  all  bind  us  to  the  prin 
ciples  of  our  Union  as  our  leading  and  guiding  star. 

Gentlemen,  I  cannot  resume  my  seat  without  again  express 
ing  my  sense  of  gratitude  for  your  generous  appreciation  of 
my  services.  I  have  the  pleasure  to  know  that  this  festival 
originated  with  the  Boston  mechanics,  a  body  always  distin 
guished,  always  honored,  always  patriotic,  from  the  first  dawn  of 
the  Revolution  to  the  present  time.  Who  is  here,  whose  father 
has  not  told  him  —  there  are  some  here  old  enough  to  know  it 
themselves  —  that  they  were  Boston  mechanics  whose  blood  red 
dened  State  Street  on  the  memorable  5th  of  March.  And  as 
the  tendencies  of  the  Revolution  went  forward,  and  times  grew 
more  and  more  critical,  it  was  the  Boston  mechanics  who  com 
posed,  to  a  great  extent,  the  crowds  which  frequented  the  old 
Whig  head-quarters  in  Union  Street;  which  assembled,  as  oc 
casion  required  patriots  to  come  together,  in  the  Old  South ; 
or  filled  to  suffocation  this  immortal  Cradle  of  American  Lib 
erty. 

When  Independence  was  achieved,  then*  course  was  alike  in- 


430  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

telligent,  wise,  and  patriotic.  They  saw,  as  quick  and  as  fully 
as  any  men  in  the  country,  the  infirmities  of  the  old  Confedera 
tion,  and  discerned  the  means  by  which  they  might  be  remedied. 
From  the  first,  they  were  ardent  and  zealous  friends  of  the  pres 
ent  Constitution.  They  saw  the  necessity  of  united  councils, 
and  common  regulations,  for  all  the  States,  in  matters  of  trade 
and  commerce.  They  saw,  what  indeed  is  obvious  enough,  that 
their  interest  was  completely  involved  with  that  of  the  mer 
cantile  class,  and  other  classes ;  and  that  nothing  but  one  gen 
eral,  uniform  system  of  commerce,  trade,  and  imports  could 
possibly  give  to  the  business  and  industry  of  the  country  vigor 
and  prosperity.  When  the  convention  for  acting  on  the  Con 
stitution  sat  in  this  city,  and  the  result  of  its  deliberations  was 
doubtful,  the  mechanics  assembled  at  the  Green  Dragon  tavern, 
and  passed  the  most  firm  and  spirited  resolutions  in  favor  of  the 
Constitution ;  and  when  these  resolutions  were  presented  to  the 
Boston  delegation,  by  a  committee  of  which  Colonel  Revere 
was  chairman,  they  were  asked  by  one  of  the  members,  how 
many  mechanics  were  at  the  meeting ;  to  which  Colonel  Revere 
answered,  "  More  than  there  are  stars  in  heaven."  With  states 
manlike  sagacity,  they  foresaw  the  advantages  of  a  united  gov 
ernment.  They  celebrated,  therefore,  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution  by  rejoicings  and  festivals,  such,  perhaps,  as  have  not 
since  been  witnessed.  Emblematic  representations,  long  pro 
cessions  of  all  the  trades,  and  whatever  else  might  contribute  to 
the  joyous  demonstration  of  gratified  patriotism,  distinguished 
the  occasion.  Gentlemen,  I  can  say  with  great  truth,  that  an 
occasion  intended  to  manifest  respect  to  me  could  have  origi 
nated  nowhere  with  more  satisfaction  to  myself  than  with  the 
mechanics  of  Boston. 

I  am  bound  to  make  my  acknowledgments  to  other  classes 
of  citizens  who  assemble  here  to  join  with  the  mechanics  in  the 
purpose  of  this  meeting.  I  see  with  pleasure  the  successors  and 
followers  of  the  Mathers,  of  Clarke,  and  of  Cooper ;  and  I  am 
gratified,  also,  by  the  presence  of  those  of  my  own  profession, 
in  whose  immediate  presence  and  society  so  great  a  portion  of 
my  life  has  been  passed.  It  is  natural  that  I  should  value 
highly  this  proof  of  their  regard.  We  have  walked  the  same 
paths,  we  have  listened  to  the  same  oracles,  we  have  been 
guided  together  by  the  lights  of  Dana,  and  Parsons,  and  Sewall, 


PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

and  Parker,  not  to  mention  living  names,  not  unknown  or  un- 
honored  either  at  home  or  abroad.  As  I  honor  the  profession, 
so  I  honor  and  respect  its  worthy  members,  as  defenders  of 
truth,  as  supporters  of  law  and  liberty,  as  men  who  ever  act  on 
steady  principles  of  honor  and  justice,  and  from  whom  no  one, 
with  a  right  cause,  is  turned  away,  though  he  may  come  clothed 
in  rags. 

Mingling  in  this  vast  assembly,  I  perceive,  Gentlemen,  many 
citizens  who  bear  an  appellation  which  is  honored,  and  which 
deserves  to  be  honored,  wherever  a  spirit  of  enlightened  liberal 
ity,  humanity,  and  charity  finds  regard  and  approbation  among 
men,  I  mean  the  appellation  of  Boston  merchants.  In  a  suc 
cession  of  generations,  they  have  contributed  uniformly  to  great 
objects  of  public  interest  and  advantage.  They  have  founded 
institutions  of  learning,  of  piety,  and  of  charity.  They  have 
explored  the  field  of  human  misfortune  and  calamity ;  they 
have  sought  out  the  causes  of  vice,  and  want,  and  ignorance, 
and  have  sought  them  only  that  they  might  be  removed  and  ex 
tirpated.  They  have  poured  out  like  water  the  wealth  acquired 
by  their  industry  and  honorable  enterprise,  to  relieve  the  neces 
sities  of  poverty,  administer  comfort  to  the  wretched,  soothe  the 
ravings  of  distressed  insanity,  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  unstop 
the  ears  of  the  deaf,  and  shed  the  light  of  knowledge,  and  the 
reforming  influences  of  religion  where  ignorance  and  crime  have 
abounded.  How  am  I  to  commend,  not  only  single  acts  of  be 
nevolence,  but  whole  lives  of  benevolence,  such  as  this  ?  May 
He  reward  them,  —  may  that  Almighty  Being  reward  them,  in 
whose  irreversible  judgment,  in  that  day  which  is  to  come,  the 
merit  even  of  the  widow's  mitey  shall  outweigh  the  advantages 
of  all  the  pomp  and  grandeur  of  the  world ! 

Gentlemen,  citizens  of  Boston,  I  have  been  in  the  midst  of 
you  for  twenty  years.  It  is  nearly  sixteen  years  since,  quite 
unexpectedly  to  myself,  you  saw  fit  to  require  public  service  at 
my  hands  and  to  place  me  in  the  national  legislature.  If,  in  that 
long  period,  you  have  found  in  my  public  conduct  something  to 
be  approved,  and  more  to  be  forgiven  than  to  be  reprehended, 
and  if  we  meet  here  to-day  better  friends  for  so  many  years  of 
acquaintance  and  mutual  confidence,  I  may  well  esteem  myself 
happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  high  reward. 

I  offer  you  again,  fellow-citizens,  my  grateful  acknowledg- 


432  PUBLIC  DINNER  IN  FANEUIL  HALL. 

merits,  and  all  my  sincere  and  cordial  good  wishes ;  and  I  pro 
pose  to  you  as  a  toast :  — 

"  The  City  of  Boston  :  May  it  continue  to  be  the  head-quar 
ters  of  good  principles,  till  the  blood  of  the  Revolutionary  patri 
ots  shall  have  run  through  a  thousand  generations ! " 


ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL   SOCIETY. 


VOL.  i.  37 


ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY; 


IN  the  spring  of  1839,  Mr.  Webster  went  for  a  short  time  to  Eng 
land  He  went  in  no  public  capacity,  but  his  reputation  had  preceded 
him,  and  he  was  received  with  every  mark  of  the  most  distinguished 
consideration.  He  was  present  at  several  public  festivals,  and  his  ad 
dresses  appear  to  have  made  a  deep  impression  on  those  who  heard 
them.  The  following  is  the  only  one,  however,  which  was  reported 
at  any  length.  It  was  delivered  at  the  first  Triennial  Celebration  of 
the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  held  at  Oxford,  on  the  18th  of  July. 
Three  thousand  persons  were  at  table.  Earl  Spencer  presided,  and,  in 
introducing  Mr.  Webster,  said  they  had  "  already  drunk  the  health  of  a 
foreign  minister  who  was  present,  but  they  had  the  honor  and  advan 
tage  of  having  among  them  other  foreigners,  not  employed  in  any  pub 
lic  capacity,  who  had  come  among  them  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  a 
meeting  of  English  farmers,  such  as  he  believed  never  had  been  wit 
nessed  before,  but  which  he  hoped  might  often  be  seen  again.  Among 
these  foreigners  was  one  gentleman,  of  a  most  distinguished  character, 
from  the  United  States  of  America,  that  great  country,  whose  people  we 
were  obliged  legally  to  call  foreigners,  but  who  were  still  our  brethren 
in  blood.  It  was  most  gratifying  to  him  that  such  a  man  was  present 
at  that  meeting,  that  he  might  know  what  the  farmers  of  England 
really  were,  and  be  able  to  report  to  his  fellow-citizens  the  manner  in 
which  they  were  united,  from  every  class,  in  promoting  their  peaceful 
and  most  important  objects."  He  gave, — 

"  The  health  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  other  distinguished  strangers." 

The  toast  was  received  with  much  applause. 

MR.  WEBSTER  said  the  notice  which  the  noble  Earl  at  the  head 
of  the  table  had  been  kind  enough  to  take  of  him,  and  the  friend 
ly  sentiments  which  he  had  seen  fit  to  express  towards  the  coun- 

*  Address  at  the  Triennial  Celebration  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Societv  ol 
England,  at  Oxford  on  the  18th  of  July,  1839. 


436  ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 

try  to  which  he  belonged,  demanded  his  most  cordial  acknowl 
edgments.  He  should  therefore  begin  by  saying  how  much  he 
was  gratified  in  having  it  in  his  power  to  pass  one  day  among 
the  proprietors,  the  cultivators,  the  farmers,  of  Old  England; 
that  England  of  which  he  had  been  reading  and  conversing  all 
his  life,  and  now  for  once  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting. 

I  would  say,  in  the  next  place,  continued  Mr.  Webster,  if  I 
could  say,  how  much  I  have  been  pleased  and  gratified  with  one 
portion  of  the  exhibition  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  for 
mation  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  and  that  is,  the  assem 
blage  of  so  large  a  number  of  the  farmers  of  England.  When 
persons  connected  with  some  pursuit,  of  whatever  description, 
assemble  in  such  numbers,  I  cannot  look  on  them  but  with 
respect  and  regard ;  but  I  freely  confess  that  I  am  more  than 
ordinarily  moved  on  all  such  occasions,  when  I  see  before  me, 
on  either  continent,  a  great  assemblage  of  those  whose  interests, 
whose  hopes,  whose  objects  and  pursuits  in  life,  are  connected 
with  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

Whatever  else  may  tend  to  enrich  and  beautify  society,  that 
which  feeds  and  clothes  comfortably  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
should  always  be  regarded  as  the  great  foundation  of  national 
prosperity.  I  need  not  say  that  the  agriculture  of  England  is 
instructive  to  all  the  world ;  as  a  science,  it  is  here  better  under 
stood;  as  an  art,  it  is  here  better  practised;  as  a  great  inter 
est,  it  is  here  as  highly  esteemed  as  in  any  other  part  of  the 
globe. 

The  importance  of  agriculture  to  a  nation  is  obvious  to  every 
man ;  but  it,  perhaps,  does  not  strike  every  mind  so  suddenly, 
although  certainly  it  is  equally  true,  that  the  annual  produce 
of  English  agriculture  is  a  great  concern  to  the  whole  civil 
ized  world.  The  civilized  and  commercial  states  are  so  con 
nected,  their  interests  are  so  blended,  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
notoriety,  that  the  fear  or  the  prospect  of  a  short  crop  in  Eng 
land  deranges  and  agitates  the  business  transactions  and  com 
mercial  speculations  of  the  whole  trading  world. 

It  is  natural  that  this  should  be  the  case  in  those  nations 
which  look  to  the  occurrence  of  a  short  crop  in  England  as  an 
occasion  which  may  enable  them  to  dispose  profitably  of  their 
own  surplus  produce.  But  the  fact  goes  much  farther,  for 
when  such  an  event  occurs  in  the  English  capital,  —  the  cen- 


ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY.  437 

tre  of  comrr.ercial  speculations,  where  the  price  of  commodi 
ties  is  settled  and  arranged  for  the  whole  world,  where  the  ex 
changes  between  nations  are  conducted  and  concluded,  —  its 
consequences  are  felt  everywhere,  as  no  one  knows  better  than 
the  noble  Earl  who  occupies  the  chair.  Should  there  be  a  frost 
in  England  fifteen  days  later  than  usual  in  the  spring,  should 
there  be  an  unseasonable  drought,  or  ten  cold  and  wet  days, 
instead  of  ten  warm  and  dry  ones,  when  the  harvest  is  reaped, 
every  exchange  in  Europe  and  America  is  more  or  less  affected 
by  the  result. 

I  will  not  pursue  these  remarks.  [Loud  cries  of  "  Go  on ! 
Go  on!"]  I  must,  however,  say,  that  I  entertain  not  the 
slightest  doubt  of  the  great  advantage  to  the  interest  of  agricul 
ture  which  must  result  from  the  formation  and  operation  of  this 
society.  Is  it  not  obvious  to  the  most  common  observer,  that 
those  who  cultivate  the  soil  have  not  the  same  conveniences, 
opportunities,  and  facilities  of  daily  intercourse  and  comparison 
of  opinions,  as  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests? 
Those  who  are  associated  in  the  pursuits  of  commerce  and  man 
ufactures  naturally  congregate  together  in  cities ;  they  have  im 
mediate  means  of  frequent  communication.  Their  sympathies, 
feelings,  and  opinions  are  instantaneously  circulated,  like  elec 
tricity,  through  the  whole  body. 

But  how  is  it  with  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  ?  Separated, 
spread  over  a  thousand  fields,  each  attentive  to  his  own  acres, 
they  have  only  occasional  opportunities  of  communicating  with 
each  other.  If  among  commercial  men  chambers  of  commerce, 
and  other  institutions  of  that  character,  —  if  among  the  trades 
guilds  are  found  expedient,  how  much  more  necessary  and  ad 
visable  to  have  some  such  institutions  as  this  society,  which,  at 
least  annually,  shah1  bring  together  the  representatives  of  the 
great  agricultural  interest ! 

In  many  parts  of  the  country  to  which  I  belong,  there  are 
societies  upon  a  similar  principle,  which  have  been  found  very 
advantageous.  As  with  you,  they  offer  rewards  for  specimens 
of  fine  animals,  and  for  implements  of  husbandry  supposed 
to  excel  those  which  have  been  known  before.  They  turn 
their  attention  to  every  thing  designed  to  facilitate  the  opera 
tions  of  the  farmer,  and  improve  his  stock,  and  interest  in  the 
country.  Among  other  means  of  improving  agriculture, 
37* 


438  ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 

have  imported  largely  from  the  best  breeds  of  animals  known  in 
England.  I  am  sure  that  a  gentleman  who  has  to-day  deserv 
edly  obtained  many  prizes  for  stock  will  not  be  displeased  to 
learn  that  I  have  seen,  along  the  rich  pastures  of  the  Ohio  and 
its  tributary  streams,  animals  raised  from  those  which  had  been 
furnished  by  his  farms  in  Yorkshire  and  Northumberland. 

But,  apart  from  this  subject,  I  beg  leave  to  make  a  short  re 
sponse  to  the  very  kind  sentiments,  wrhich  went  near  to  my 
heart,  as  uttered  by  the  noble  Earl  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

The  noble  chairman  was  pleased  to  speak  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States  as  kindred  in  blood  with  the  people  of  Eng 
land.  I  am  an  American.  I  was  born  on  that  great  continent 
and  I  am  wedded  to  the  fortunes  of  my  country,  for  weal  or  fo) 
woe.  There  is  no  other  region  of  the  earth  which  I  can  call  my 
country.  But  I  know,  and  I  am  proud  to  know,  what  blood 
flows  in  these  veins. 

I  am  happy  to  stand  here  to-day,  and  to  remember,  that,  al 
though  my  ancestors,  for  several  generations,  lie  buried  beneath 
the  soil  of  the  western  continent,  yet  there  has  been  a  time 
when  my  ancestors  and  your  ancestors  toiled  in  the  same  cities 
and  villages,  cultivated  adjacent  fields,  and  worked  together  to 
build  up  that  great  structure  of  civil  polity  which  has  made 
England  what  England  is. 

When  I  was  about  to  embark  for  this  country,  some  friends 
asked  me  what  I  was  going  to  England  for.  To  be  sure,  Gen 
tlemen,  I  came  for  no  object  of  business,  public  or  private ;  bu/ 
I  told  them  I  was  coming  to  see  the  elder  branch  of  the  family. 
I  told  them  I  was  coming  to  see  my  distant  relations,  my  kith 
and  kin  of  the  old  Saxon  race. 

With  regard  to  whatsoever  is  important  to  the  peace  of  the 
world,  its  prosperity,  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  of  just  opin 
ions,  the  diffusion  of  the  sacred  light  of  Christianity,  I  know 
nothing  more  important  to  the  promotion  of  those  best  interests 
of  humanity,  and  the  cause  of  the  general  peace,  amity,  and 
concord,  than  the  good  feeling  subsisting  between  the  English 
men  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  the  descendants  of  Eng 
lishmen  on  the  other. 

Some  little  clouds  have  overhung  our  horizon,  —  I  trust  they 
will  soon  pass  away.  I  am  sure  that  the  age  we  live  in  does 
not  expect  that  England  and  America  are  to  have  controversies 


ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY-.  439 

carried  to  the  extreme,  upon  any  occasion  not  of  the  last  impor 
tance  to  national  interests  and  honor. 

We  live  in  an  age  when  nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  are 
subject  to  a  moral  responsibility.  Neither  governments  nor  peo 
ple  —  thank  God  for  it !  —  can  now  trifle  with  the  general  sense 
of  the  civilized  world ;  and  I  am  sure  that  the  civilized  world 
would  hold  your  country  and  my  country  to  a  very  strict  ac 
count,  if,  without  very  plain  and  apparent  reason,  deeply  affect 
ing  the  independence  and  great  interests  of  the  nation,  any  con 
troversy  between  them  should  have  other  than  an  amicable 
issue. 

I  will  venture  to  say  that  each  country  has  intelligence  enough 
to  understand  all  that  belongs  to  its  just  rights,  and  is  not  defi 
cient  in  means  to  maintain  them ;  and  if  any  controversy  be 
tween  England  and  America  were  to  be  pushed  to  the  extreme 
of  force,  neither  party  would  or  could  have  any  signal  advan 
tage  over  the  other,  except  what  it  could  find  in  the  justice  of 
its  cause  and  the  approbation  of  the  world. 

With  respect  to  the  occasion  which  has  called  us  together,  I 
beg  to  repeat  the  gratification  which  I  have  felt  in  passing  a  day 
in  such  a  company,  and  to  conclude  with  the  most  fervent 
expression  of  my  wish  for  the  prosperity  and  usefulness  of  the 
Agricultural  Society  of  England. 


THE   AGRICULTURE   OF  ENGLAND, 


THE  AGRICULTURE   OF  ENGLAND; 


MR.  WEBSTER  has  at  all  periods  of  life  cherished  a  strong  attachment 
to  agricultural  pursuits.  Of  late  years,  when  not  obliged  to  be  at  Wash 
ington,  in  the  discharge  of  his  public  duties,  he  has  resided  wholly  on 
his  farm  at  Marshfield,  Massachusetts.  The  condition  of  the  agriculture 
of  England  was  one  of  the  objects  which  most  received  his  attention, 
during  his  short  visit  to  that  country  in  1839.  On  his  return  to  the 
United  States  in  January,  1840,  a  strong  desire  was  entertained  by  his 
friends  to  meet  him  on  some  public  occasion,  and  a  wish  was  expressed, 
particularly  by  many  members  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  holding  occasional  meetings  for  the  discussion  of 
agricultural  subjects,  to  learn  the  result  of  his  observations  on  the  pres 
ent  state  of  English  agriculture.  These  wishes  were  communicated  to 
Mr.  Webster,  and  an  early  day  was  appointed  for  a  meeting,  at  which 
the  following  remarks  were  made  by  him. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  I  would  observe  in  the  outset  of  these  re 
marks,  that  I  regard  agriculture  as  the  leading  interest  of  so 
ciety  ;  and  as  having,  in  all  its  relations,  a  direct  and  intimate 
bearing  upon  human  comfort  and  the  national  prosperity.  I 
have  been  familiar  with  its  operations  in  my  youth ;  and  I  have 
always  looked  upon  the  subject  with  a  lively  and  deep  interest. 
I  do  not  esteem  myself  to  be  particularly  qualified  to  judge  of 
the  subject  in  all  its  various  aspects  and  departments;  and  1 
neither  myself  regard,  nor  would  I  have  others  regard,  my 
opinions  as  authoritative.  But  the  subject  has  been  one  of 
careful  observation  to  me,  both  in  public  and  private  life ;  and 
my  visit  to  Europe,  at  a  season  of  the  year  particularly  favor 
able  for  this  purpose,  has  given  me  the  opportunity  of  seeing 

*  Remarks  on  the  Agriculture  of  England,  made  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Massachusetts,  and  others  interested  in  Agriculture,  held  at  the  State- 
House  in  Boston,  on  the  Evening  of  the  13th  of  January,  1840. 


444  THE   AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND 

its  improved  husbandry,  and  as  far  as  it  may  be  interesting,  or 
can  have  a  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  the  evening's  discus 
sion,  the  agriculture  of  Massachusetts,  I  will,  as  the  meeting 
appear  to  expect,  say  a  few  words  upon  what  has  attracted  my 
notice. 

How  far,  in  a  question  of  this  kind,  the  example  of  other 
countries  is  to  be  f oh1  owed,  is  an  inquiry  worthy  of  much  con 
sideration.  The  example  of  a  foreign  country  may  be  too 
closely  followed.  It  will  furnish  a  safe  rule  of  imitation  only 
as  far  as  the  circumstances  of  the  one  country  correspond  with 
those  of  the  other. 

The  great  objects  of  agriculture,  and  the  great  agricultural 
products  of  England  and  of  Massachusetts,  are  much  the  same. 
Neither  country  produces  olives,  nor  rice,  nor  cotton,  nor  the 
sugar-cane.  Bread,  meat,  and  clothing  are  the  main  productions 
of  both.  But,  although  the  great  productions  are  mainly  the 
same,  there  are  many  diversities  of  condition  and  circumstances, 
and  various  modes  of  culture. 

The  primary  elements  which  enter  into  the  consideration  of 
the  agriculture  of  a  country  are  four,  —  climate,  soil,  price  of 
land,  and  price  of  labor.  In  any  comparison,  therefore,  of  the 
agriculture  of  England  with  that  of  Massachusetts,  these  ele 
ments  are  to  be  taken  particularly  into  view. 

The  climate  of  England  differs  essentially  from  that  of  this 
country.  England  is  on  the  western  side  of  the  eastern,  and  we 
on  the  eastern  side  of  the  western  continent.  The  climate  of 
all  countries  is  materially  affected  by  their  respective  situations 
in  relation  to  the  ocean.  The  winds  which  prevail  most,  both 
in  this  country  and  in  England,  are  from  the  west.  It  is  known 
that  the  wind  blows,  in  our  latitude,  from  some  point  west  to 
some  point  east,  on  an  average  of  years,  nearly  or  quite  three 
days  out  of  four.  These  facts  are  familiar.  The  consequences 
resulting  from  them  are,  that  our  winters  are  colder  and  our  sum 
mers  much  hotter  than  in  England.  Our  latitude  is  about  that 
of  Oporto,  yet  the  temperature  is  very  different.  On  these  ac 
counts,  therefore,  the  maturing  of  the  crops  in  England,  and  the 
power  of  using  these  crops,  creates  a  material  difference  between 
its  agriculture  and  ours.  It  may  be  supposed  that  our  climate 
must  resemble  that  of  China  in  the  same  latitudes ;  and  this  fact 
may  have  an  essential  bearing  upon  that  branch  of  agriculture 
which  it  is  proposed  to  introduce  among  us,  the  production  of  silk 


THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND.  445 

The  second  point  of  difference  between  the  two  countries  lies 
in  the  soil.  The  soil  of  England  is  mainly  argillaceous,  a  soft 
and  unctuous  loam  upon  a  substratum  of  clay.  This  may  be 
considered  as  the  predominant  characteristic  in  the  parts  which 
I  visited.  The  soil  in  some  of  the  southern  counties  of  Eng 
land  is  thinner ;  some  of  it  is  what  we  should  call  stony ;  much 
of  it  is  a  free,  gravelly  soil,  with  some  small  part  which,  with 
us,  would  be  called  sandy.  Through  a  great  extent  of  country, 
this  soil  rests  on  a  deep  bed  of  chalk.  Ours  is  a  granite  soil. 
There  is  granite  in  Great  Britain ;  but  this  species  of  soil  pre 
vails  in  Scotland,  a  part  of  the  country  which  more  resembles 
our  own.  We  may  have  some  lands  as  good  as  any  in  England. 
Our  alluvial  soils  on  Connecticut  River,  and  in  some  other  parts 
of  the  country,  are  equal  to  any  lands ;  but  these  have  not,  or 
dinarily,  a  wide  extent  of  clay  subsoil.  The  soil  of  Massachu 
setts  is  harder,  more  granitic,  less  abounding  in  clay,  and  alto 
gether  more  stony,  than  the  soil  of  England.  The  surface  of 
Massachusetts  is  more  uneven,  more  broken  with  mountain 
ridges,  more  diversified  with  hill  and  dale,  and  more  abundant 
in  streams  of  water,  than  that  of  England. 

The  price  of  land  in  that  country,  another  important  element 
in  agricultural  calculations,  differs  greatly  from  the  price  of  land 
with  us.  It  is  three  times  as  high  as  in  Massachusetts,  at  least. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  price  of  agricultural  labor  is  much 
higher  in  Massachusetts  than  in  England.  The  price  of  labor 
varies  considerably  in  different  parts  of  England;  but  it  may 
be  set  down  as  twice  as  dear  with  us  here. 

These  are  the  general  remarks  which  have  suggested  them 
selves  to  me  in  regard  to  the  state  of  things  abroad.  Now,  have 
we  any  thing  to  learn  from  them  ?  Is  there  any  thing  in  the 
condition  of  England  applicable  to  us,  or  in  regard  to  which  the 
agriculture  of  England  may  be  of  use  to  Massachusetts  and 
other  countries  ? 

The  subject  of  agriculture,  in  England,  has  strongly  attracted 
the  attention  and  inquiries  of  men  of  science.  They  have  stud 
ied  particularly  the  nature  of  the  soil.  More  than  twenty  years 
ago,  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  undertook  to  treat  the  subject  of  the 
application  of  chemical  knowledge  to  agriculture  in  the  analysis 
of  soils  and  manures.  The  same  attention  has  been  continued 
to  the  subject ;  and  the  extraordinary  discoveries  and  advances 

VOL.  i.  38 


446  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND. 

in  chemical  science,  since  his  time,  are  likely  to  operate  greatly  to 
the  advantage  of  agriculture.  The  best  results  may  be  expected 
from  them.  These  inquiries  are  now  prosecuted  in  France  with 
great  enthusiasm  and  success.  We  may  hope  for  like  beneficial 
results  here  from  the  application  of  science  to  the  same  objects. 
But  although  the  circumstances  of  climate  and  situation,  and 
nature  of  the  soil,  form  permanent  distinctions  which  cannot 
be  changed,  yet  there  are  other  differences,  resulting  from  dif 
ferent  modes  of  culture,  and  different  forms  of  applying  labor ; 
and  it  is  to  these  differences  that  our  attention  should  be  partic 
ularly  directed.  Here,  there  is  much  to  learn.  English  cultiva 
tion  is  more  scientific,  more  systematic,  and  more  exact,  a  great 
deal,  than  ours.  This  is  partly  the  result  of  necessity.  A  vast 
population  is  to  be  supported  on  comparatively  a  small  surface. 
Lands  are  dear,  rents  are  high,  and  hands,  as  well  as  mouths, 
are  numerous.  Careful  and  skilful  cultivation  is  the  natural  re 
sult  of  this  state  of  things.  An  English  farmer  looks  not 
merely  to  the  present  year's  crop.  He  considers  what  will  be 
the  condition  of  the  land  when  that  crop  is  off;  and  what  it  will 
be  fit  for  the  next  year.  He  studies  to  use  his  land  so  as  not  to 
abuse  it.  On  the  contrary,  his  aim  is  to  get  crop  after  crop,  while 
still  the  land  shall  be  growing  better  and  better.  If  he  should 
content  himself  with  raising  from  the  soil  a  large  crop  this  year, 
and  then  leave  it  neglected  and  exhausted,  he  would  starve. 
It  is  upon  this  fundamental  idea  of  constant  production  without 
exhaustion,  that  the  system  of  English  cultivation,  and,  indeed,  of 
all  good  cultivation,  is  founded.  England  is  not  original  in  this. 
Flanders,  and  perhaps  Italy,  have  been  her  teachers.  This  sys 
tem  is  carried  out  in  practice  by  a  well-considered  rotation  of 
crops.  The  form  or  manner  of  this  rotation,  in  a  given  case,  is 
determined  very  much  by  the  value  of  the  soil,  and  partly  by  the 
local  demand  for  particular  products.  But  some  rotation,  some 
succession,  some  variation  in  the  annual  productions  of  the 
same  land,  is  essential.  No  tenant  could  obtain  a  lease,  or,  if 
he  should,  could  pay  his  rent  and  maintain  his  family,  who 
should  wholly  disregard  this.  White  crops  (wheat,  barley,  rye, 
oats,  &c.)  are  not  to  follow  one  another.  Our  maize,  or  Indian 
corn,  must  be  considered  a  white  crop ;  although,  from  the  quan 
tity  of  stalk  and  leaf  which  it  produces,  and  which  are  such  ex 
cellent  food  for  cattle,  it  is  less  exhausting  than  some  other 


THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND.  447 

white  crops;  or,  to  speak  more  properly,  it  makes  greater  re 
turns  to  the  land.  The  cultivation  of  maize  has  not,  however, 
been  carried  to  any  extent  in  England.  Green  crops  are  turnips, 
potatoes,  beets,  vetches,  or  tares  (which  are  usually  eaten  while 
growing,  by  cattle  and  sheep,  or  cut  for  green  food),  and  clover. 
Buck  or  beech  wheat,  and  winter  oats,  —  thought  to  be  a  very 
useful  product,  —  are  regarded  also  as  green  crops,  when  eaten 
on  the  land ;  and  so,  indeed,  may  any  crop  be  considered,  which 
is  used  in  this  way.  But  the  turnip  is  the  great  green  crop  of 
England.  Its  cultivation  has  wrought  such  changes,  in  fifty 
years,  that  it  may  be  said  to  have  revolutionized  English  agri 
culture. 

Before  that  time,  when  lands  became  exhausted  by  the  repe 
tition  of  grain  crops,  they  were  left,  as  it  was  termed,  fallow ; 
that  is,  were  not  cultivated  at  ah1,  but  left  to  recruit  themselves 
as  they  might.  This  occurred  as  often  as  every  fourth  year,  so 
that  one  quarter  of  the  arable  land  was  always  out  of  cultiva 
tion,  and  yielded  nothing.  Turnips  are  now  substituted  in  the 
place  of  these  naked  fallows ;  and  now  land  in  turnips  is  con 
sidered  as  fallow.  What  is  the  philosophy  of  this  ?  The  rais 
ing  of  crops,  even  of  any,  the  most  favorable  crop,  does  not,  in 
itself,  enrich,  but  in  some  degree  exhausts,  the  land.  The  ex 
haustion  of  the  land,  however,  as  experience  and  observation 
have  fully  demonstrated,  takes  place  mainly  when  the  seeds  of 
a  plant  are  allowed  to  perfect  themselves.  The  turnip  is  a  bien 
nial  plant.  It  does  not  perfect  its  seed  before  it  is  consumed. 

There  is  another  circumstance  in  respect  to  the  turnip  plant 
which  deserves  consideration.  Plants,  it  is  well  understood, 
derive  a  large  portion  of  their  nutriment  from  the  air.  The 
leaves  of  plants  are  their  lungs.  The  leaves  of  turnips  expose 
a  wide  surface  to  the  atmosphere,  and  derive,  therefore,  much  of 
their  subsistence  and  nutriment  from  these  sources.  The  broad 
leaves  of  the  turnips  likewise  shade  the  ground,  preserve  its 
moisture,  and  prevent,  in  some  measure,  its  exhaustion  by  the 
sun  and  air. 

The  turnips  have  a  further  and  ultimate  use.  Meat  and  cloth 
ing  come  from  animals.  The  more  animals  are  sustained  upon 
a  farm,  the  more  meat  and  the  more  clothing.  These  things 
bear,  of  course,  a  proportion  to  the  number  of  bullocks,  sheep, 
swine,  and  poultry  which  are  maintained.  The  great  inquiry 


448  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND. 

then,  is,  What  kind  of  crops  will  least  exhaust  the  land  in  their 
cultivation,  and  furnish,  at  the  same  time,  support  to  the  largest 
number  of  animals  ? 

A  very  large  amount  of  land,  in  England,  is  cultivated  in 
turnips.  Fields  of  turnips  of  three,  four,  and  even  five  hundred 
acres,  are  sometimes  seen,  though  the  common  fields  are  much 
less  ;  and  it  may  be  observed  here,  that,  in  the  richest  and  best 
cultivated  parts  of  England,  inclosures  of  ten,  fifteen,  twenty, 
or  thirty  acres  seemed  more  common.  Since  the  introduction 
of  the  turnip  culture,  bullocks  and  sheep  have  trebled  in  number. 
Turnips,  for  the  reasons  given,  are  not  great  exhausters  of  the 
soil ;  and  they  furnish  abundant  food  for  animals.  Let  us  sup 
pose  that  one  bushel  of  oats  or  barley  may  be  raised  at  the  same 
cost  as  ten  bushels  of  turnips,  and  will  go  as  far  in  support  of 
stock.  The  great  difference  in  the  two  crops  is  to  be  found  in 
the  farmer's  barn-yard.  Here  is  the  test  of  their  comparative 
value.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  great  advantages  which  follow 
from  their  cultivation.  The  value  of  manure  in  agriculture  is 
well  appreciated.  M' Queen  states  the  extraordinary  fact,  that 
the  value  of  the  animal  manure  annually  applied  to  the  crops  in 
England,  at  current  prices,  surpasses  in  value  the  whole  amount 
of  its  foreign  commerce.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  greatly  ex 
ceeds  it.  The  turnip  crop  returns  a  vast  amount  of  nutritive 
matter  to  the  soil.  The  farmer,  then,  from  his  green  crops,  and 
by  a  regular  system  of  rotation,  finds  green  fodder  for  his  cattle 
and  wheat  for  the  market. 

Among  the  lighter  English  soils  is  that  of  the  county  of  Nor 
folk,  a  county,  however,  which  I  had  not  the  pleasure  of  visiting. 
Its  soil,  I  understand,  is  light,  a  little  inclined  to  sand,  or  light 
loam.  Such  soils  are  not  unfavorable  to  roots.  Here  is  the 
place  of  the  remarkable  cultivation  and  distinguished  improve 
ments  of  that  eminent  cultivator,  Mr.  Coke,  now  Earl  of  Leices 
ter.  In  these  lands,  as  I  was  told,  a  common  rotation  is  turnips, 
barley,  clover,  wheat.  These  lands  resemble  much  of  the  land 
in  our  county  of  Plymouth,  and  the  sandy  lands  to  be  found  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  Connecticut  and  Merrimack  Rivers.  The 
cultivation  of  green  crops  in  New  England  deserves  attention. 
There  is  no  incapacity  in  our  soil,  and  there  are  no  circum 
stances  unfavorable  to  their  production.  What  would  be  the 
best  kind  of  succulent  vegetables  to  be  cultivated,  whether  tur- 


THE  AGRICULTURE  OF   ENGLAND.  449 

nips  or  carrots,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  But  no  attempts, 
within  my  knowledge,  have  been  made  among  us  of  a  systematic 
agriculture ;  and  until  we  enter  upon  some  regular  rotation  of 
crops,  and  our  husbandly  becomes  more  systematic,  no  distin 
guished  success  can  be  looked  for.  As  to  our  soil,  as  has  been 
remarked,  there  is  no  inherent  incapacity  for  the  production  of 
any  of  the  common  crops.  We  can  raise  wheat  in  Massachu 
setts.  The  average  crop  in  England  is  twenty-six  bushels  to 
the  acre.  From  my  own  farm,  where  the  soil  is  comparatively 
thin  and  poor,  I  have  obtained  this  summer  seventy-six  bushels 
of  wheat  upon  three  acres  of  land.  It  is  not,  therefore,  any 
want  of  capability  in  the  soil ;  but  the  improvement  and  success 
of  our  husbandry  must  depend  upon  a  succession  of  crops 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  our  soil,  climate,  and  peculiar 
condition. 

In  England,  a  large  portion  of  the  turnip  crop  is  consumed  on 
the  land  where  it  grows.  The  sheep  are  fed  out  of  doors  all 
winter;  and  I  saw  many  large  flocks,  in  the  aggregate  thou 
sands  and  even  millions  of  sheep,  which  were  never  housed. 
This  was  matter  of  surprise,  especially  considering  the  wetness 
of  the  climate ;  and  these  sheep  are  often  exposed  in  fields 
where  a  dry  spot  cannot  be  found  for  them  to  lie  down  upon. 
Sheep  are  often  folded  in  England  by  wattled  fences,  or  hur 
dles  temporarily  erected  in  different  parts  of  the  field,  and  re 
moved  from  place  to  place,  as  the  portions  of  the  crop  thu? 
fenced  off  are  consumed.  In  some  cases  they  are  folded,  and 
the  turnips  dug  and  carried  to  them.  In  such  cases,  they  are 
always  fed  upon  lands  which  are  intended  the  next  year  to  be, 
as  far  as  practicable,  brought  under  cultivation.  I  have  seen 
many  laborers  in  fields,  employed  in  drawing  the  turnips,  split 
ting  them,  and  scattering  them  over  the  land,  for  the  use  of  the 
sheep,  which  is  considered  better,  often,  than  to  leave  the 
sheep  to  dig  for  themselves.  These  laborers  are  so  employed 
all  winter,  and  if  the  ground  should  become  frozen,  the  tur 
nips  are  taken  up  with  a  bar.  Together  with  the  turnips,  it 
is  thought  important  that  sheep  should  have  a  small  quantity 
of  other  food.  Chopped  hay,  sometimes  a  little  oil-cake,  or  oats, 
is  usually  given.  This  is  called  trough  food,  as  it  is  eaten  in 
troughs,  standing  about  in  the  field.  In  so  moist  a  climate  as 
that  of  England,  some  land  is  so  wet  that,  in  the  farmer's 
38* 


450  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND. 

phrase,  it  will  not  carry  sheep ;  that  is,  it  is  quite  too  wet  for 
sheep  to  lie  out  upon  it.  In  such  cases,  the  turnips  must  be 
carried^  that  is,  removed  from  the  field,  and  fed  out  elsewhere. 
The  last  season  was  uncommonly  wet,  and  for  that  reason,  per 
haps,  I  could  not  so  well  judge ;  but  it  appeared  to  me  that  it 
would  be  an  improvement  in  English  husbandry,  to  furnish  for 
sheep,  oftener  than  is  done,  not  only  a  tolerably  dry  ground  to 
lie  on,  but  some  sort  of  shelter  against  the  cold  rains  of  winter. 
The  turnips,  doubtless,  are  more  completely  consumed,  when 
dug,  split,  and  fed  out.  The  Swedish  turnip,  I  have  little  doubt, 
is  best  suited  to  cold  climates.  It  is  scarcely  injured  by  be 
ing  frozen  in  the  ground  in  the  winter,  as  it  will  thaw  again, 
and  be  still  good,  in  spring.  In  Scotland,  in  the  Lothians,  where 
cultivation  is  equal  to  that  in  any  part  of  England,  it  is  more 
the  practice  than  farther  south  to  house  turnips,  or  draw  them, 
and  cover  them  from  frost.  I  have  been  greatly  pleased  with 
Scotch  farming,  and  as  the  climate  and  soil  of  Scotland  more 
resemble  the  soil  and  climate  of  Massachusetts  than  those  of 
England  do,  I  hope  the  farmers  of  Massachusetts  will  acquaint 
themselves,  as  well  as  they  can,  with  Scotch  husbandry.  1 
had  the  pleasure  of  passing  some  time  in  Scotland,  with 
persons  engaged  in  these  pursuits,  and  acknowledge  myself 
much  instructed  by  what  I  learned  from  them,  and  saw  in  their 
company.  The  great  extent  of  the  use  of  turnips  and  other 
green  crops  in  Scotland  is  evidence  that  such  crops  cannot  be 
altogether  unsuited  to  Massachusetts. 

Among  the  subjects  which  of  late  years  have  engaged  much 
of  the  attention  of  agriculturists  in  England,  few  are  more  im 
portant  than  that  of  tile  draining.  This  most  efficient  and  suc 
cessful  mode  of  draining  is  getting  into  very  extensive  use. 
Much  of  the  soil  of  England,  as  I  have  already  stated,  rests 
on  a  clayey  and  retentive  subsoil.  Excessive  witness  is  preju 
dicial  and  destructive  to  the  crops.  Marginal  drains,  or  drains 
on  the  outside  of  the  fields,  do  not  produce  the  desired  results. 
These  tile-drains  have  effected  most  important  improvements. 
The  tile  itself  is  made  of  clay,  baked  like  bricks ;  it  is  about  one 
foot  in  length,  four  inches  in  width,  three  fourths  of  an  inch  in 
thickness,  and  it  stands  from  six  to  eight  inches  in  height,  being 
hemispherical,  or  like  the  half  of  a  cylinder,  with  its  sides  elon 
gated.  It  somewhat  resembles  the  Dutch  tiles  which  are  seen 


THE  AGRICULTURE   OF  ENGLAND.  451 

on  the  roofs  of  the  old  houses  in  Albany  and  New  York.  A 
ditch  is  sunk,  eighteen  or  twenty  inches  in  depth,  and  these 
drains  are  multiplied  over  a  field,  sometimes  at  a  distance  of 
only  seven  yards  apart.  The  ditch  or  drain  being  dug,  these 
tiles  are  laid  down,  with  the  hollow  side  at  bottom,  on  the 
smooth  clay,  or  any  other  firm  subsoil,  the  sides  placed  near  to 
each  other,  some  little  straw  thrown  over  the  joints  to  prevent 
the  admission  of  dirt,  and  the  whole  covered  up.  This  is  not 
so  expensive  a  mode  of  draining  as  might  be  supposed.  The 
ditch  or  drain  need  only  be  narrow,  and  tiles  are  of  much  cheaper 
transportation  than  stone  would  be.  But  the  result  is  so  impor 
tant  as  well  to  justify  the  expense.  It  is  estimated  that  this 
thorough  draining  adds  often  twenty  per  cent,  to  the  production 
of  the  wheat  crop.  A  beautiful  example  came  under  my  obser 
vation  in  Nottinghamshire,  not  long  before  I  left  England.  A 
gentleman  was  showing  me  his  grounds  for  next  year's  crop  of 
wheat.  On  one  side  of  the  lane,  where  the  land  had  been 
drained,  the  wheat  was  already  up  and  growing  luxuriantly ;  on 
the  other,  where  the  land  was  subject  to  no  other  disadvantage 
than  that  it  had  not  been  drained,  it  was  still  too  wet  to  be 
sowed  at  all.  It  may  be  thought  singular  enough,  but  it  is 
doubtless  true,  that,  on  stiff,  clayey  lands,  thorough  draining  is 
as  useful  in  dry,  hot  summers  as  in  cold  and  wet  summers ;  for 
such  land,  if  a  wet  winter  or  spring  be  suddenly  followed  by 
hot  and  dry  weather,  is  apt  to  become  hard  and  baked,  so  that 
the  roots  of  plants  cannot  enter  it.  Thorough  draining,  by  giv 
ing  an  opportunity  to  the  water  on  the  surface  to  be  constantly 
escaping,  corrects  this  evil.  Draining  can  never  be  needed  to  so 
great  an  extent  in  Massachusetts  as  in  England  and  Scotland, 
from  the  different  nature  of  the  soil ;  but  we  have  yet  quantities 
of  low  meadow  lands,  producing  wild,  harsh,  sour  grasses,  or 
producing  nothing,  which,  there  is  little  doubt,  might  be  rendered 
most  profitable  hay-fields,  by  being  well  drained.  When  we  un 
derstand  better  the  importance  of  concentrating  labor,  instead 
of  scattering  it,  —  when  we  shall  come  to  estimate  duly  the 
superior  profit  of  "  a  little  farm,  well  tilled,"  over  a  great  farm, 
half  cultivated  and  half  manured,  overrun  with  weeds,  and 
scourged  with  exhausting  crops,  —  we  shall  then  fill  our  barns, 
and  double  the  winter  fodder  for  our  cattle  and  sheep  by  the 
products  of  these  waste  meadows. 


452  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND. 

There  is  in  England  another  mode  of  improvement,  most 
important,  instances  of  which  I  have  seen,  and  one  of  which  I 
regard  as  the  most  beautiful  agricultural  improvement  which 
has  ever  come  under  my  observation.  I  mean  irrigation,  or 
the  making  of  what  are  called  ivater  meadows.  I  first  saw 
them  in  Wiltshire,  and  was  much  struck  with  them,  not  having 
before  understood,  from  reading  or  conversation,  exactly  what 
they  were.  But  I  afterwards  had  an  opportunity  of  examin 
ing  a  most  signal  and  successful  example  of  this  mode  of  im 
provement,  on  the  estates  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  in  the  North 
of  England,  on  the  borders  of  Sherwood  forest.  Indeed,  it  was 
part  of  the  old  forest  known  by  that  name.  Sherwood  forest, 
at  least  in  its  present  state,  is  not  like  the  pine  forests  of  Maine, 
the  heavy,  hard  wood  forests  of  the  unredeemed  lands  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  or  the  still  heavier  timbered  lands  of 
the  West.  It  embraces  a  large  extent  of  country,  with  various 
soils,  some  of  them  thin  and  light,  with  beautiful  and  venerable 
oaks,  of  unknown  age,  much  open  ground  between  them  and 
underneath  their  wide-spread  branches,  and  this  covered  with 
heather,  lichens,  and  fern.  Sherwood  forest,  indeed,  is  not  less 
interesting  for  the  natural  beauty  which  charms  the  eye,  than 
for  its  venerable  antiquity  and  historical  associations.  But  in 
many  parts  the  soil  is  far  enough  from  being  rich.  Upon  the 
borders  of  this  forest  are  the  water  meadows  of  which  I  am 
speaking.  A  little  river  runs  through  the  forest  in  this  part,  at 
the  bottom  of  a  valley  with  sides  moderately  sloping,  and  of 
considerable  extent,  between  the  river  at  the  bottom  and  the 
common  level  of  the  surrounding  country  above.  This  little 
river,  before  reaching  the  place,  runs  through  a  small  town, 
and  gathers,  doubtless,  some  refuse  matter  in  its  course.  From 
this  river,  the  water  is  taken  at  the  upper  end  of  the  valley, 
conducted  along  the  edge,  or  bank,  in  a  canal  or  earner,  and 
from  this  carrier,  at  proper  times,  suffered  to  flow  out  very 
gently,  spreading  over  and  irrigating  the  whole  surface,  trick 
ling  and  shining,  when  I  saw  it,  (and  it  was  then  November,) 
among  the  light-green  of  the  new-springing  grass,  and  collect 
ed  below  in  another  canal,  from  which  it  is  again  let  out,  to 
flow  in  like  manner  over  land  lying  still  farther  down  towards 
the  bottom  of  the  valley.  Ten  years  ago,  this  land,  for  produc 
tion,  was  worth  little  or  nothing.  I  was  told  that  some  of  it 


THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND.  453 

had  been  let,  for  no  more  than  a  shilling  an  acre.  It  has  not 
been  manured,  and  yet  is  now  most  extensively  productive.  It 
is  not  flooded ;  the  water  does  not  stand  upon  it ;  it  flows  gen 
tly  over,  and  is  applied  several  times  in  a  year  to  each  part,  say 
in  March,  May,  July,  and  October.  In  November,  when  I  saw 
it,  the  farmers  were  taking  off  the  third  crop  of  hay  cut  this  sea 
son,  and  that  crop  was  certainly  not  less  than  two  tons  to  the 
acre.  This  last  crop  is  mostly  used  as  green  food  for  cattle. 
When  I  speak  of  the  number  of  tons,  I  mean  tons  of  dried 
hay.  After  this  crop  was  off,  sheep  were  to  be  put  on  it,  to 
have  lambs  at  Christmas,  so  as  to  come  into  market  in  March, 
a  time  of  year  Avhen  they  command  a  high  price.  Upon  taking 
off  the  sheep  in  March,  the  land  would  be  watered.  The  pro 
cess  of  watering  lasts  two  or  three  days,  or  perhaps  eight  or 
ten  days,  according  to  circumstances,  and  is  repeated  after  the 
taking  off  of  each  successive  crop.  Although  this  water  has 
no  doubt  considerable  sediment  in  it,  yet  the  general  fact  shows 
how  important  water  itself  is  to  the  growth  of  plants,  and  how 
far,  even,  it  may  supply  the  place  of  other  sources  of  sustenance. 
Now  we  in  Massachusetts  have  a  more  uneven  surface,  more 
valleys  with  sloping  sides,  by  many  times  more  streams,  and 
such  a  climate  that  our  farms  suffer  much  oftener  from  drought 
than  farms  in  England.  May  we  not  learn  something  useful, 
therefore,  from  such  examples  of  irrigation  in  that  country  ? 

With  respect  to  implements  of  husbandry,  I  am  of  opinion 
that  the  English,  upon  the  whole,  have  no  advantage  over  us. 
Their  wagons  and  carts  are  no  better;  their  ploughs,  I  thought, 
not  better  anywhere,  and  in  some  counties  far  inferior,  because 
unnecessarily  heavy.  The  subsoil  plough,  for  which  we  have 
little  use,  is  esteemed  a  useful  invention,  and  the  mole  plough, 
which  I  have  seen  in  operation,  and  the  use  of  which  is  to 
make  an  underground  drain,  without  disturbing  the  surface,  is 
an  ingenious  contrivance,  likely  to  be  useful  in  clay  soils,  free 
from  stone  and  gravel,  but  which  can  be  little  used  in  Massa 
chusetts.  In  general,  the  English  utensils  of  husbandry  seemed 
to  me  unnecessarily  cumbrous  and  heavy.  The  ploughs,  es 
pecially,  require  a  great  strength  of  draught.  But  as  drill 
husbandry  is  extensively  practised  in  England,  and  very  little 
with  us,  the  various  implements,  or  machines,  for  drill-sow 
ing  in  that  country  quite  surpass  all  we  have.  I  do  not  re- 


454  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF  ENGLAND. 

member  to  have  seen  the  horse-rake  used  in  England,  although 
I  saw  in  operation  implements  for  spreading  hay  from  the 
swath  to  dry,  or  rather,  perhaps,  for  turning  it,  drawn  by 
horses. 

There  are  other  matters  connected  with  English  agriculture, 
upon  which  I  might  say  a  word  or  two.  Crops  are  cultivated 
in  England,  of  which  we  know  little.  The  common  English 
field  bean,  a  small  brown  bean,  growing  not  on  a  clinging  vine, 
like  some  varieties  of  the  taller  bean,  runs  in  what  is  called  with 
us  the  bush  form,  like  our  common  white  bean,  upon  a  slight, 
upright  stalk,  two  or  two  and  a  half  feet  high,  and  producing 
from  twenty  to  forty  bushels  to  the  acre.  It  is  valuable  as  food 
for  animals,  especially  for  horses.  This  bean  does  not  grow 
well  in  thin  soils,  or  what  is  called  a  hot  bottom.  A  strong, 
stiff,  clayey  land,  well  manured,  suits  it  best.  Vetches,  or  tares, 
a  sort  of  pea,  are  very  much  cultivated  in  England,  although 
almost  unknown  here,  and  are  there  either  eaten  green,  by 
sheep,  on  the  land,  or  cut  and  carried  for  green  food. 

The  raising  of  sheep  in  England  is  an  immense  interest. 
England  probably  clips  fifty  millions  of  fleeces  this  year,  lambs 
under  a  year  old  not  being  shorn.  The  average  yield  may  be 
six  or  seven  pounds  to  a  fleece.  There  are  two  principal  classes 
of  sheep  in  England,  the  long-wooled  and  the  short-wooled. 
Among  these  are  many  varieties,  but  this  is  the  general  division 
or  classification.  The  Leicester  and  the  South  Down  belong, 
respectively,  to  these  several  families.  The  common  clip  of  the 
former  may  be  estimated  from  seven  to  eight  pounds ;  and  of 
the  last,  from  three  to  three  and  a  half,  or  four.  I  mention 
these  particulars  only  as  estimates ;  and  much  more  accurate 
information  may  doubtless  be  obtained  from  many  writers. 
In  New  England,  we  are  just  beginning  to  estimate  rightly  the 
importance  of  raising  sheep.  England  has  seen  it  much  ear 
lier,  and  is  pursuing  it  with  far  more  zeal  and  perseverance. 
Our  climate,  as  already  observed,  differs  from  that  of  England ; 
but  the  great  inquiry,  applicable  in  equal  force  to  both  coun 
tries,  is,  How  can  we  manage  our  land  in  order  to  produce  the 
largest  crops,  while,  at  the  same  time,  we  keep  up  the  condi 
tion  of  the  land,  and  place  it,  if  possible,  in  a  course  of  gradual 
improvement?  The  success  of  farming  must  depend,  in  a  con 
siderable  degree,  upon  the  animals  produced  and  supported  on 


THE  AGRICULTURE    OF    ENGLAND.  455 

the  farm.  The  farmer  may  calculate,  in  respect  to  animals,  upon 
two  grounds  of  profit,  the  natural  growth  of  the  animal,  and  the 
weight  obtained  by  fattening.  The  skilful  farmer,  therefore,  ex 
pects,  where  he  gains  one  pound  in  the  fattening  of  his  animal, 
to  gain  an  equal  amount  in  the  growth.  The  early  maturity 
of  stock  is  consequently  a  point  of  much  importance. 

Oxen  are  rarely  reared  in  England  for  the  yoke.  In  Devon 
shire  and  Cornwall,  ox  teams  are  employed ;  but  in  travelling 
one  thousand  miles  in  England,  I  saw  only  one  ox  team,  and 
in  that  case  they  were  driven  one  before  the  other,  and  in  har 
nesses  similar  to  those  of  horses.  Bullocks  are  raised  for  the 
market.  It  is  highly  desirable,  therefore,  both  in  respect  to  neat 
cattle  and  sheep,  that  their  growth  should  be  rapid,  and  their 
fattening  properties  favorable,  that  they  may  be  early  disposed 
of,  and  the  expense  of  production  proportionably  lessened. 

Is  it  practicable,  on  the  soil  and  in  the  climate  of  Massachu 
setts,  to  pursue  a  succession  of  crops  ?  I  cannot  question  it ; 
and  I  have  entire  confidence  in  the  improvements  to  our  hus 
bandry,  and  the  other  great  advantages,  which  would  accrue 
from  judicious  rotation  of  products.  The  capacities  of  the  soil 
of  Massachusetts  are  undoubted.  One  hundred  bushels  of  corn 
to  an  acre  have  been  repeatedly  produced,  and  other  crops  in 
like  abundance.  But  this  will  not  effect  the  proper  ends  of  a 
judicious  and  profitable  agriculture,  unless  we  can  so  manage 
our  husbandry  that,  by  a  judicious  and  proper  succession  of 
the  crops,  land  will  not  only  be  restored  after  an  exhausting 
crop,  but  gradually  enriched  by  cultivation.  It  is  of  the  highest 
importance  that  our  farmers  should  increase  then*  power  of  sus 
taining  live  stock,  that  they  may  obtain  in  that  way  the  means 
of  improving  their  farms. 

The  breed  of  cattle  in  England  is  greatly  improved,  and  still 
improving.  I  have  seen  some  of  the  best  stocks,  and  many 
individual  animals  from  others,  and  think  them  admirable. 
The  short-horned  cattle  brought  to  this  country  are  often  very 
good  specimens.  I  have  seen  the  flocks  from  which  some  of 
them  have  been  selected,  and  they  are  certainly  among  the 
best  in  England.  But  in  every  selection  of  stock,  we  are  to  re 
gard  our  own  climate,  and  our  own  circumstances.  We  raise 
oxen  for  work,  as  well  as  for  beef;  and  I  am  of  opinion  that 
the  Devonshire  stock  furnishes  excellent  animals  for  our  use 


456  THE  AGRICULTURE  OF   ENGLAND. 

We  have  suffered  that  old  stock,  brought  hither  by  our  ancestors, 
tc>  run  down,  and  be  deteriorated.  It  has  been  kept  up  and 
greatly  improved  in  England,  and  we  may  now  usefully  im 
port  from  it.  The  Devonshire  ox  is  a  hardy  animal,  of  size  and 
make  suited  to  the  plough,  and  though  certainly  not  the  largest 
for  beef,  yet  generally  very  well  fattened.  I  think  quite  well, 
also,  of  the  Ayrshire  cows.  They  are  good  milkers,  and,  being 
a  hardy  race,  are  on  that  account  well  suited  to  a  cold  climate, 
and  to  the  coarse  and  sometimes  scanty  pasturage  of  New 
England.  After  all,  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
improved  breed  of  short  horns  are  the  finest  cattle  in  the  world, 
and  should  be  preferred  wherever  plenty  of  good  fodder  and  some 
mildness  of  climate  invite  them.  They  are  well  fitted  to  the 
Western  States,  where  there  is  an  overflowing  abundance, 
both  of  winter  and  summer  fodder,  and  where,  as  in  Eng 
land,  bullocks  are  raised  for  beef  only.  I  have  no  doubt,  also, 
that  they  might  be  advantageously  raised  in  the  rich  valleys  of 
the  Connecticut,  and  perhaps  in  some  other  favored  parts  of  the 
State.  But  for  myself,  as  a  farmer  on  the  thin  lands  of  Ply 
mouth  County,  and  on  the  bleak  shores  of  the  sea,  I  do  not  feel 
that  I  could  give  to  animals  of  this  breed  that  entertainment 
which  their  merit  deserves. 

As  to  sheep,  the  Leicesters  are  like  the  short-horned  cattle. 
They  must  be  kept  well ;  they  should  always  be  fat ;  and,  pressed 
by  good  keeping  to  early  maturity,  they  are  found  very  profita 
ble.  "  Feed  well,"  was  the  maxim  of  the  great  Roman  farmer, 
Cato ;  and  that  short  sentence  comprises  much  of  all  that  be 
longs  to  the  profitable  economy  of  live  stock.  The  South 
Downs  are  a  good  breed,  both  for  wool  and  mutton.  They  crop 
the  grass  that  grows  on  the  thin  soils,  over  beds  of  chalk,  in 
Wiltshire,  Hampshire,  and  Dorsetshire.  They  ought  not  to 
scorn  the  pastures  of  New  England. 

When  we  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  condition  of  England, 
we  must  perceive  of  what  immense  importance  is  every,  even 
the  smallest,  degree  of  improvement  in  its  agricultural  produc 
tions.  Suppose  that,  by  some  new  discovery,  or  some  improved 
mode  of  culture,  only  one  per  cent,  could  be  added  to  the  an 
nual,  results  of  English  cultivation ;  this,  of  itself,  would  mate 
rially  affect  the  comfortable  subsistence  of  millions  of  human 
beings.  It  is  often  said  that  England  is  a  garden.  This 


THE  AGRICULTURE   OF  ENGLAND.  457 

is  a  strong  metaphor.  There  is  poor  land  and  some  poor 
cultivation  in  England.  All  people  are  not  equally  industrious, 
careful,  and  skilful.  But,  on  the  whole,  England  is  a  prodigy 
of  agricultural  wealth.  Flanders  may  possibly  surpass  it.  I 
have  not  seen  Flanders ;  but  England  quite  surpasses,  in  this 
respect,  whatever  I  have  seen.  In  associations  for  the  improve 
ment  of  agriculture  we  have  been  earlier  than  England.  But 
such  associations  now  exist  there.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  at 
tending  the  first  meeting  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of 
England,  and  I  found  it  a  very  pleasant  and  interesting  occa 
sion.  Persons  of  the  highest  distinction  for  rank,  talents,  and 
wealth  were  present,  ah1  zealously  engaged  in  efforts  for  the 
promotion  of  the  agricultural  interest.  No  man  in  England 
is  so  high  as  to  be  independent  of  the  success  of  this  great  in 
terest  ;  no  man  so  low  as  not  to  be  affected  by  its  prosperity  or 
its  decline.  The  same  is  true,  eminently  and  emphatically  true, 
with  us.  Agriculture  feeds  us ;  to  a  great  degree  it  clothes  us ; 
without  it  we  could  not  have  manufactures,  and  we  shoulc1 
not  have  commerce.  These  all  stand  together,  but  they  stand 
together  like  pillars  in  a  cluster,  the  largest  in  the  centre,  and 
that  largest  is  agriculture.  Let  us  remember,  too,  that  we  live 
in  a  country  of  small  farms  and  freehold  tenements ;  a  country 
in  which  men  cultivate  with  their  own  hands  their  own  fee- 
simple  acres,  drawing  not  only  their  subsistence,  but  also  their 
spirit  of  independence  and  manly  freedom,  from  the  ground  they 
plough.  They  are  at  once  its  owners,  its  cultivators,  and  its 
defenders.  And,  whatever  else  may  be  undervalued  or  over 
looked,  let  us  never  forget  that  the  cultivation  of  the  earth  is 
the  most  important  labor  of  man.  Man  may  be  civilized,  in 
some  degree,  without  great  progress  in  manufactures  and  with 
little  commerce  with  his  distant  neighbors.  But  without  the 
cultivation  of  the  earth,  he  is,  in  all  countries,  a  savage.  Until 
he  gives  up  the  chase,  and  fixes  himself  in  some  place  and 
seeks  a  living  from  the  earth,  he  is  a  roaming  barbarian.  When 
tillage  begins,  other  arts  follow.  The  farmers,  therefore,  are  the 
founders  of  human  civilization. 


END    OF    VOLUME    FIRST. 


VOL.  i.  39 


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